The Construct
by RedDesertPhoenix
Summary: I guess I can't call it a one-shot any more. Still a crack fic though.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 0 (Because what else would you call the prologue of a 'Familiar of Zero' fanfic?)

***Chapter-START!***

The spell exploded. It always did, somehow, when it was Louise casting it. Fortunately, her classmates had been expecting it and had been standing clear, ready with their 'clear smoke' spells and jeers. After all, with Louise the Zero casting, what other result could there be? Yet when the smoke cleared, they found her spell had not failed. Not completely, anyhow.

The breeze bought forth from the students to disperse the smoke revealed a figure in the remains of the summoning circle. A humanoid figure. It seemed to be human, and at first there were jeers about summoning a goblin or orc, but the quickly dissipating smoke revealed this to be false. The figure was human – an impossibility, but none the less, there it was.

The figure appeared to be some form of a hunter or brigand – its entire dress was made up of the light browns and greens favored by those professions. Unlike hunters or brigands however, the cloth of the creature in front of them was patterned - in order to make it blend in. The prohibitive cost of patterning cloth resulted in it being reserved for nobles – and the idea of using such a expensive technique to make a person blend into their environment rather than stand out among their peers was unthinkable. Yet there it was.

The figure had no weapon they could see. Rather than a rucksack strung to its back as a hunter might have, it had a number of small pouches attached to various belts across its body. In place of its rucksack, it had a strange black-ish metal contraption, slung across its back with a strap. The lack of a rucksack to carry its prey suggested a brigand… or perhaps a scout? There was something in the style of its dress that suggested military – especially the odd-looking patterned helmet on the figure's head.

As the smoke cleared, it turned to look at them in a quick lizard-like motion, impossibly fast for a human, and the crowd of students… well, they were both relieved and disquieted. The idea that Louise had managed to summon a human as her familiar – it smacked somewhat of heresy. To find that the figure merely appeared human came as something as a relief. The students disquiet came from the contrast between the figures humanity and inhumanity. Zubest had seen this before – there had been a talented doll maker within her kingdom, making ever-more realistic dolls for the daughters of nobility. The standard dolls made for the commoners were absurdly proportioned, and were both very cute and very popular. His realistic dolls however, were quite creepy. They were invariably destroyed, and the doll-maker was almost lynched for witchcraft before he restricted himself to the cute, 'commoner' dolls.

The figure in front of her reminded her very much of the destroyed dolls. Everything about it screamed almost-human. Alien. Other. There was the quick lizard-like motions of its head already mentioned, but there were more subtle things as well. There was something about the figures eyes – it would be looking right at something, but the eyes didn't seem to focus. The eyes didn't really change at all. The figures face was completely expressionless

Was it some sort of mimicry? But where on earth had it seen a human dressed in such clothing? Perhaps it was a really bad mimicry? It would certainly fit in with Louise's… talents.

'Louise... whatever the creature is, you need to complete the ceremony.'

The things inhumanity was revealed as it turned to face the speaker. But 'turned' is something of a misnomer. Rather, 'rotated on the spot', its feet gliding without moving over the grass. Louis looked on the figure with no small amount of trepidation. 'I need to kiss… this?' her voice uncertain.

Mr Colbert nodded. 'The summoning will have left it dazed. Completing the ceremony will bind it to you – rendering it powerless against you. This must be done before it shakes itself out of its daze.'

The creature's legs moved… it seemed to be attempting to walk. However despite the motions of its legs, the figure remained stationary. This did nothing to reassure Louise, who was cautiously moving towards it. The thing continued its attempts at walking -– sidestepping, and even jumping, yet remained firmly in place as Louis raised her courage. Its quick motions were creepy.

It really didn't seem dazed at all to her. But...  
Mr Colbert was at her back, and she was surrounded by her classmates. It wasn't like she had a choice. If the thing in front of her mauled her, it would still be preferable to the mauling she would receive from her classmates if she refused to go near the thing.

And with this comforting thought, Louise finally leaned forward – within reach of the figure, leaned forward and kissed him. Kissed through him, her lips falling through the creatures face with no resistance, and onto a slightly cold, flat surface slightly behind it. She shrieked and bowled herself over backwards, her classmates… strangely not laughing at her for it, just as on edge as she was.

The creature glided towards her, and Louise scuttled backwards, shrieking – but the creature hadn't been attempting to attack her, it seems. Impossibly fast, it reversed – gliding backwards without the need to stop. It glided forward and back a few more times – making sure it could move now, it seemed, before turning to look at her. And at Mr Colbert – who now had his wand pointed firmly in its direction.

The strange metallic thing on the creatures back seemed to teleport to the creature's hand, and he pointed it back at Mr Colbert, looking through what looked like a short telescope on the top of the device. It was evidently some kind of stalemate. None of them was sure of what it would take to take down the creature, nor what the black device was capable of. Yet the creature – as creepy as it was, didn't attack. Just glided back and forth and jumped occasionally, keeping its expressionless face pointed at Mr Colbert.

The glowing of the Familiar Runes as they appeared caused Mr Colbert to relax. It seems he had feared the strange creature would not be Bound. The appearance of the runes didn't seem to cause the creature any pain, but their appearance had at least stopped it's obsession with Mr Colbert – instead staring expressionlessly at the runes appearing on its hand.

Mr Colbert motioned to Louise - who was standing behind him, looking at the thing nervously. 'He's… it's your familiar now. You should be able to talk with it.

Louise took a few cautious steps forward, her eyes taking in her classmates watching her. Why did they always have to be watching? There's nothing she would have rather done than leave this… thing. This abomination. Banish it, and call forth another. But there they were. As always. Watching, and waiting for her to fail.

She took on as imperial a bearing as she could manage, and issued her first order to her new familiar.  
'Familiar – whatever you are, follow me. I'll lead you to your quarters.'  
After a few moments, the creature glided after the girl, its feet neither fully connecting with the ground, nor leaving any mark to show its passage.  
Unseen by the girl in front of the creature, text appeared above the creature's head – floating there slightly transparent, before fading away.

[Ub3rL33t1: WTF? WTF is this?]

***Authors Notes***

I love the Familiar of Zero universe, and have wanted to write something within it for ages, but hadn't come up with an idea till now. This is more just something for me to enjoy – to get me back into writing fanfics, and if I do continue it I'll not be taking it as seriously as past fics.

On a related note, to all those waiting for updates of my 'Ranma Half' series, I apologise. The serious direction the story has taken has meant the amount of notes I take before even starting each chapter has grown to about twenty times the amount of material in the chapter themselves. With all of this, the story stopped being fun to write a long time ago. I've got the next chapter mostly written, but it still needs a fair amount of polishing before I'm willing to upload it. While I can see myself finishing this chapter – maybe even this year, it's unlikely I'll continue the series after that point.


	2. Chapter One

It wasn't virtual reality, but it was the closest you could get on a gamers budget. Through the monitor, he peered out of a bush, up and down a dirt track winding it's way through a forest. Through his headphones, he could hear the ambient noise of it – the hum of insects, the occasional call of a bird, as well as the more distant roar of what must be a waterfall. No sound yet of motorised transport, or the tramp of shoes, but he was still keeping his ear out. His fingers rested lightly on the keyboard and mouse, allowing him as much control over the game's avatar as his own body. The setup may not have been what people believed virtual reality would be in the late '80s, but it was still incredibly immersive.

One thing it didn't have was any way of sensing pain. Which was fortunate, because the figure that had been steadily crawling through the undergrowth behind him for the last five minutes was finally close enough to spot him. Three muffled coughs from the figures silenced submachinegun, and the newly made corpse collapsed.

Brent swore, as the 'YOU DIED' floated over the corpse on-screen. He hadn't even had a suspicion someone was behind him. When had they picked up his trail, anyway? When he had crossed the field to get into the forest? Just to add insult to injury, the low rumble of a diesel filled his ears, and the troop transport he had planned on ambushing rumbled into view.

Brent took a short break as the respawn counter counted down, returning with a beer. Wherever his new location was, there seemed to be a lot of fog – except for the patch of grass at his feet, everything was white. As the fog slowly cleared, he absently wondered when the particle effects on the smoke had been improved. When the silhouettes of multiple figures appeared in the thinning fog, Brent's expression turned sour. Bloody spawn campers… How had they even managed to do that, anyway? Wasn't the spawn locations in this game supposed to be randomly located every time?

The respawn clock hit zero, and the smoke finished clearing.

Wait, those weren't other players…

20 MINUTES LATER

The girl led him through the castle. Brent absently following behind – trying to work out what was going on.

Brent would have thought this was someone's idea of a joke, if it wasn't so impossible. The graphics of the place – if they were graphics, were well beyond the capabilities of his machine. The rendering of the scene could be done remotely, but that would mean his keyboard and mouse input would need to be sent to the remote machine, the scene rendered, and the results piped back. That would result in some serious latency, and no matter how fast he moved the view around, he couldn't detect any lag at all.

Perhaps it was live-action, with actors? They could have overlaid his weapons load out over the direct output of live-streaming video. But no, even if they set up a camera to move with his mouse-movements, there's no way it'd be able to spin as fast as he could in-game. And there was also the issue of how they'd manage to hack into the middle of his game in the first place.

For now, he'd just accept it as real, play along, and keep an eye out for how it was being done.

They seemed to be coming to their destination.

The… well, it had to be a barn, didn't it? The barn was a stone building, set against the outer wall of the castle. It had its doors open, and a number of the other young mages were leading an assortment of creatures straight out of a fantasy novel into it. It was quite a large building for a fantasy setting – almost a small warehouse. But then, it'd have to be, to house what looked like that baby dragon that was being led into it.

The girl led him to a stall roughly human sized. The floor was of stone, with a wooden wall separating it from its neighbors. There was a trough full of water, and a large pile of hay in one corner. Was the hay supposed to be his food? Or his bed?

He looked back at the girl… who was looking at him expectantly. The girl gestured inside, still visibly nervous of him, but attempting to cover it.

She noticed he still had no idea what she wanted. 'Inside', she ordered, trying and failing to hide her nervousness. 'This is where you'll be sleeping now.'

A single blast on a trumpet made the already nervous girl jump. [SPAWN POINT SET] floated across his vision.

'What was that?' The girl was now quite a few steps further away than she had been. 'Spawn-point... What is…' she seemed to collect herself. 'You can talk? Is this how you speak?'

Brent sat, bemused. A NPC who reacted to in-game text? But then, he had decided to treat this as real, hadn't he? His keys flew across the keyboard.

[Ub3rL33t1: testing…]

Her eyes shot to just above his head. To where his text would appear, if she was another player. Alright, then.

[Ub3rL33t1: I guess that's a yes, then. Do you mind telling me what's going on?']

The girl explained.

[Ub3rL33t1: 'You're my familiar' doesn't really tell me anything. How about how this happened? What is this place? And how did you do that to my computer?]

The girl explained again.

[Ub3rL33t1: Are you sure you're not an NPC? I don't know what the summoning circle is, I don't know what the summoning ceremony is, I don't know what the Tristanian Academy of Magic is, or for that matter, what 'Tristania' is. And how can you not know what a computer is? You're running in one.]

The girl… Well, from looking at her, she certainly seemed to be explaining. Her arms were gesturing wildly, and from the volume of her voice, she was certainly attempting to get him to understand him. However what she was actually attempting to explain had little to do with what he had asked, and had more to do with the level of intelligence needed to not know about Tristania, its magic academy, and the tradition of the summoning ceremony.

Given the large amount of energy put into her explanation, it was something of a shame that halfway through it, Brent muted his speakers. He watched the girl in front of him continue her pantomime of a temper tantrum – gestures, stamping of the foot, the lot. It was starting to get annoying rather than amusing though, so…

As the girl wound towards the end of her 'explanation', his fingers flew across the keyboard.

[Ub3rL33t1: Nevermind. Don't care. Bye.]

He just had time to take in her shocked comprehension, when he disconnected. He considered reloading the game – but it was already midnight, and he had a lecture at 9am. He powered down his machine, and headed for bed.

Back in the Tristanian Academy of Magic, Louise stood, fury rooting to the spot. How… How Dare He! She'd kill him! She'd…

She looked around. At the completely missing familiar. And the completely empty stall. Well, she'd kill him. If he came back.

As Louise stamped out of the stables and towards the student dorm rooms, her anger was slowly replaced by worry. It was true that she'd successfully summoned a familiar… but he hadn't stayed summoned, had he?

He'd better come back.

AUTHORS NOTES:

First – Thanks for the reviews. Yes, I will be continuing this, I'm having way too much fun with it not to.


	3. Chapter 3

**CHAPTER TWO  
**

 **Disclaimer:**  
Not mine.

Brent had had a long day. His morning had been filled with a lecture on the relation between the romantic movement and the 'age of enlightenment'. This wasn't exactly a riveting subject to begin with, and to make matters worse, their lecturer wasn't the most inspiring in the world. He had found himself nodding off a number of times, and was almost certain he had heard one of his classmates snoring. The afternoon had involved a lecture on the mind-body problem, which in contrast, had been surprisingly interesting.

He'd rounded off the day with several hours of solid procrastinating on the upcoming philosophy assignment, and was now ready to relax. His computer finally finished loading, Brent prepared himself. Headphones firmly in place, lights turned off and monitor in front of him, he double-clicked the shortcut to his favourite tactical shooter, and relaxed – as the world of assignments, deadlines and lectures slipped away, to be replaced by...

The stables. Again.

A young boy in plain clothes was walking past, carrying a bundle of hay. Or at least, he was till Brent appeared. The boy froze. Brent had never seen a deer caught in headlights, but the clichéd old saying certainly came to mind. The boy stood there, still frozen, and slowly twisted his head, to see if Brent was really there. As though if he looked quickly, it might provoke Brent to attack. Brent straffed sideways a tad – just to see what the boy would do. Which turned out to be shrieking, throwing his bundle of hay in the general direction of the ceiling, and disappearing faster than logic in a religious debate.

Brent sighed. He didn't know why he was back in the stables, and he didn't really care. 'ESC' still bought up the main menu, and he was able to quit with no problems. He restarted his computer for good measure, and had managed to finish off a quarter of his pizza before he was back in the game. Or, to put it more accurately, back in the stable.

'But I swear on Brimir it was here!'

The boy was facing away from him, towards two older gentlemen in robes – both of them carrying staffs. Wizards, obviously. He vaguely recognised one of them as the man in charge of the group from yesterday. On his appearance, the two men tightened their stance, and gripped their staffs firmly – almost, but not quite pointing them at him.

The stableboy – who had his back to Brent, noticed their eyes focusing at a point behind him his protest petered out, to be replaced by a kind of petrified silence.

'He's... he's behind me, isn't me?' His voice was very quiet. Barely above a whisper. The two wizards nodded, not taking their eyes off Brent. One of them – the man from yesterday, spoke. 'Thank you Patique. You may resume your duties.'

The boy walked steadily from the stall, not daring to turn around. Once outside, he not-quite-ran out of sight. The two old men motioned off to the side, and a young girl – the girl from yesterday, entered.

'Now, Louise tells us you can understand speech. That you can talk. We have never encountered a creature like you, and wished to find out more about you. We'll need you to answer some questions.'

Brent considered disconnecting again. He just wanted to unwind, not try to work out whatever was going on here. Or help these things with whatever they wanted. But... could it be some new kind of game? They had magic here, and that girl had mentioned him being her familiar. Perhaps this was the start of some epic quest?

As Brent considered the merits of not disconnecting, his avatar stood still, staring soullessly past the two men. They endured it's thousand-yard stare for some time, before one of them – the white-haired one, whispered to Louise 'are you sure it's intelligent?'

Brent, who had his headphones turned up quite loud, responded.

[Ub3rL33t1: I've never made any pretensions about being especially intelligent. Perhaps before questioning my intelligence, you should establish your own?]

The bald man frowned.

'Miss Valliere, A Familiar's actions – and its words, are a reflection of their owner. If your Familiar is sarcastic with…' His lecture was interrupted by Osmond. 'Under the circumstances, Jean, this can be overlooked.'

Colbert nodded, and the mortified girl breathed her relief.

Brent, looking on, felt a bit sorry for the poor girl. Perhaps he should be a bit more polite. At least, unless they said anything else especially stupid.

[Ub3rL33t1: My apologies. You may call me Uber. So… you said you wanted to know about me. I'm a bit curious about your world too. Do you mind answering my questions?]

The old men nodded.

It was the bald one that eventually spoke. 'We've never seen anything like you before. What manner of creature are you?'

[Ub3rL33t1: It's a little complicated, so give me a minute.]

He took a bite of his pizza, and wondered how he was going to explain this. The figures in front of him waited with varying degrees of patience.

[Ub3rL33t1: Ok. So. First of all, there's two of me.]

Brent paused, trying to think of how to phrase this.

[Ub3rL33t1: You know when you dream? And even though you can see and hear things in your dream, there's still a part of you that can hear what's going on in the real world? It's like that, for me. What you're seeing in front of you isn't my true self, it's something like my 'dream self'.]

The two men looked at each other, while Louise, trying to make sense of it, spoke up.

'So this is a dream for you? You think we're just a make-believe world?'

[Ub3rL33t1: Yes. No. Perhaps it was a bad metaphor. Let me think…]

Brent tried again.

[Ub3rL33t1: Do you have stories in this world?]

The figures nodded.

[Ub3rL33t1: Have you ever wanted to be in those stories? Because in our world, our… uh… magicians, have found a way of letting people be characters in stories. These stories aren't told any more. People can see them. In things like magic mirrors. They watch their character in the magic mirror, and tell it what to do using uh…]

How on earth was he going to explain a keyboard and mouse?

[Ub3rL33t1: Well we control the characters with special magical instruments. But since controlling another character is somewhat difficult, only very simple controls are needed. I can move its head to look around the room, and the magic mirror will show whatever it looks at. I can hear anything it can hear, and do most things a real person can do.]

The girl looked at him, while the wizards looked at each other. With his sound turned up, he was able to catch a whispered comment '… a little hard to believe'. But the next question came from the girl.

'If what you said is true, why does your… your character not look right? It looks kind of creepy. If it's supposed to be a character in a story, why make it creepy? Why have something the other characters will run away from? Or are you playing as a villain? '

Brent sighed. How to explain the uncanny valley to people who had never encountered it?

[Ub3rL33t1: Making controls for it are difficult. Controls that aren't useful aren't designed in. So it can't smile, it can't walk naturally, it can't eat. There's a lot of actions it isn't able to do. And other characters in these stories don't notice the 'creepy look' because they're designed not to. Have you ever noticed in stories, how sometimes characters act really stupid, or wear really obvious disguises, but no one notices? They don't notice because the story teller doesn't want them to notice. The stories told with the magic mirrors are a lot more complicated than those spoken by a storyteller, but they follow many of the same conventions. If characters noticed how unrealistic everything was, it would ruin the story.]

The wizard with the white hair spoke up.

'I have been the headmaster of the Tristanian Academy of Magic for over half my life. Yet I have never heard of spells like this. Where in the world are your people based?'

Before Brent could answer, something seemed to disturb the man

'Wait, you said this… construct in front of us isn't your real body. This means you're not necessarily human. Are you an Elf?'

The question seemed loaded. At the word 'Elf', the girl had shrunk back, and the two wizards grew a lot more tense.

[Ub3rL33t1: I'm not an Elf. They don't exist here. Except in stories.]

They didn't relax.

[Ub3rL33t1: I'm human. While my character is standing in that barn talking to

you, I'm sitting down with my dinner, typing… uh, using magic to write these messages. I've never heard of the Tristanian Academy of Magic, and a lot of what I've seen in your world just doesn't exist in mine.]

They seemed somewhat relieved at this.

[Ub3rL33t1: I have a few questions of my own. The girl mentioned I'd been summoned. How did she do that? Why did she do that? Is there some epic quest I'm supposed to start? I mean you kind of ruined my... the story I was playing. Looks like I can't play it any more. So what am I supposed to do here? And for that matter, who are you people?]

The bald man – who finally introduced himself as Mr Colbert, told him he had been summoned as a familiar to the girl – Louise. Further questions revealed no epic quest. Rather, it seemed his main objectives would consist of collecting ingredients of spells.

[Ub3rL33t1: So, 'collect 10 wolf-pelts from the nearby forest', that sort of thing? Sounds kind of boring. Sorry, that sort of story isn't really my thing. If you want me to hunt dragons or something, I'm up for that, but if it's just acting as a servant for an apprentice mage, you'd have to at least pay me.]

The old men looked at each other. Louise looked... upset.

'Your able to defeat a dragon? While we have never encountered a creature such as you, this is still hard to believe. Perhaps you could provide us with a demonstration?'

Brent shrugged. He was kind of curious to see how his guns would work here.

[Ub3rL33t1: Do you have a large open space somewhere?]

AUTHORS NOTES

I know Loúise seems crazy OOC at the moment, but this isn't the original series. Rather than having what she considers as a peasant as her Familiar, she's got something that borderline scares her. On top of that, the headmaster – who she's not too familiar with yet, has taken a personal interest in her familiar. Is it any wonder she's OOC?

Also, my apologies for the dialogue-heavy chapter. I promise something will actually start happening next chapter.


	4. Chapter II

CHAPTER III

The small crowd of students that had informally gathered to watch the demonstration had been somewhat surprising. Judging from their comments, Louise and her explosions seemed to be their main source of entertainment at the school. Her boasts that her familiar was going to be a dragon hunter just spurred them on. The two old men – Mr Colbert and the headmaster, had meanwhile been directing assistants to set up some straw bales some distance away.

The crowds reaction to his first shot was not awe, or fear, as he had expected, but laughter.

'I take back what I said earlier Louise, this really must be your Familiar – his spells blow up too!'

Mr Colbert, who had been watching rather more closely, frowned, but said nothing.

Brent continued shooting – quickly adjusting for the range, and placing shot after shot into the target, which must have been about two hundred metres away. As he continued his demonstration, he absently noting that though the world his character was set in now seemed real, his gun preformed much as it usually did. The ballistics were modelled realistically – he still had to account for bullet drop, and the time it took for the bullet to reach the target, but other differences were marked. He'd been to a real rifle-range once or twice, and his accuracy was much worse than here. Here, holding down shift would cause his avatar to 'hold it's breath', and the wandering aiming reticle would still – allowing him to get a near perfect shot every time. Judging from the response from the onlookers, who didn't have noise protection, his gun was much quieter than a real one too.

The onlookers had quietened down when he continued firing, realising the bang of his gun going off hadn't indicated failure. Those of the students who had seen muskets in action, and Mr Colbert, looked quietly thoughtful at his rate of fire, and the range at which he was firing. As they walked up the improvised range to look at the shot placement, the students seemed to have given him, and by relation, Louise, a measure of respect. Thankfully Louise wasn't actually boasting, but she was certainly very smug about the way she walked beside him. This disapeared when they actually reached the bales however.

'Wow, Louise, your Familiar is just as amazing as you said. It's ability to paint black dots on things will be great when it faces down a dragon.'

Yep. None of his shots had actually pierced the target, only painted 'bullet hole' sprites all over it. It seemed his weapons had the same effect they had in game too. No more, and no less. But if that was the case...

'It figures that a 'zero' like you would have a zero as a Familiar.'

It was the same blond haired fop who had spoken earlier, apprently trying to impress his friends. Louise was looking more and more miserable, and even though Brent didn't know the girl, and didn't even particulary like her, the treatment she was getting was starting to get a bit much.

[Ub3rL33t1: Hey you. The one with the blond hair and stupid puffy shirt. You're very ready to insult Louise – I suppose you can do better? Or is talk all your good for?]

The students joking quietened down as one by one they noticed his challenge. One of his friends nudged the fop – who had been busy trying to impress the girl by his side. He looked up, read the text, and scowled.

Glaring at Brent, he waved a hand comptemptuously. A single rose petal flew out of his sleeve before drifting slowly down to the ground. The ground it settled on was split open as something – a statue of some kind, forced it's way to the surface. Only – no, it wasn't a statue. Someone in a suit of bronzed armour. Or perhaps a golim. On reaching the surface, the figure smoothly drew it's sword and threw it – where it whirled end over end before burying itself to the hilt in the straw target. The whole time, the young man hadn't taken his eyes off Brent.

'When you can do better than that, you may speak of me as you please. Until then, it would behove you to not speak ill of your betters.'

Brent ignored the fops words. The young man may have some abilities, but a skilled fool is still a fool. Brent glided forward, examining first the sword embedded in the target, and then the golim – which had taken up position in front of it's summoner.

The young man, bristled at being ignored, turned to Louise.

'It's no surprise that one such as you should have such a poorly behaved familiar. Reign your familiar in, Zero, or I'll do it for you.'

His golim strode forward and retrieved it's sword from the target, and waved it in the general direciton of Brent to illustrate.

Brent knew he should ignore the idiot, but he was so irritating. The rifle flipped back into his hands, and he placed a three round burst into the chest of the golim. Despite the figure being made of bronze, there were pixilated blood spurts from where his bullets hit, and the Grolim crumbled. First figeratevly, collapsing to the ground, then literally, reverting back into dirt.

The fop glared at him, and negligently swung his arm out, releasing three rose petals this time.

'So you wish to challenge me for real, then?'

AUTHORS NOTES:

Yeah, this would have been out by saturday, but I've had a super busy week. Or weekend. Or something.

Also, the whole [Ub34L33t1: ] thing is getting really annoying to write. I'm pretty sure Brent's going to find himself a headset with a mic the next time he signs in.


	5. Chapter 4

CHAPTER THREE

The fop glared at him, three newly risen golims by his left, the pile of dirt to his right a reminder of what had happened to his previous golim.

'So you wish to challenge me for real, then?'

As the students rapidly backed away, Brent suddenly realized what he'd got himself into. It wasn't a matter of the thread the golims posed. It was the students. They weren't anywhere near far away enough to be safe from his gun. He wasn't sure what effect it'd have on a human, but he was sure it wouldn't be pretty.

But there was no time to type out a warning, the fop was already motioning for his golims to encircle him, swords out. He switched to pistol, and started pedaling backwards, attempting to keep the golims within view. But this wasn't Counterstrike he was playing – his character couldn't reverse as fast as he'd like in this situation, which meant...

His train of thought was cut off as one of the golims leapt at him, sword coming down in a brutal overhead swing. Brent pumped two shots into it's chest, before sidestepping the expected attack from the golim now at his rear. He wasn't disappointed, as a sword whirled end over end through the space he had just been occupying. Brent narrowly prevented himself firing at the now defenseless construct – a crowd of students stood behind the thing, apparently oblivious to the danger. He cursed, and backed away, pumping a few shots into the downed sword - which gained a few bullet-hole sprites, but was otherwise unharmed.

There was a whiring sound, and Brent suddenly remembered there had been a third golim. Far too late to prevent the over sized sword sliding right through his thigh and into the ground below. By all rights, it should have pinned him to the ground, but this wasn't exactly a real body he was playing with. As his damaged leg forced him prone, Brent actually smiled – the grolims were all above him now. No danger of friendly fire hitting any of the students.

The fop was already puffing himself up, demanding his surrender in the most insulting terms possible, while Louise was calling for a healer. The fops words were cut off by two shots – followed by a further two. The remaining golims staggered... then collapsed. There was silence... broken by inarticulate sounds of fury as the fop realized what had just happened.

'Fine! You want to fight to the end? You won't surrender? I can deal with that.'

This time there were five golims, and no sooner had they burst from the ground, than they sprang into the air towards him, drawing their swords in the process. Brent barely had enough time to react, switching weapons and clicking the mouse, before the golims landed. The swords were oversized broadswords – way too heavy for people to weild, but quite fine for magical constructs. They sliced through his arms, legs, lower torso... everywhere but his head and heart. Completely ignoring the dirt-coloured metallic sphere their target had dropped just before they landed.

KRUUMP

There was a fountain of dirt and flame, and the student body instinctively ducked, covering their ears. When they cautiously raised their head, the golims were gone. Not even piles of dirt remained. They approached the site of the explosion... and one of the students giggled, before being shushed by her friends. There wasn't any crater... but there was a very well painted 'explosion' painted on the ground – the grass waving cheerfully through it. As they got closer though, all brevity ceased. The remains of Louse's familiar lay at the center of the explosion, [Guiche Killed Ub34L33t1] floating above the mutilated body.

If there was silence before, it was even deeper now. Luise silently started to cry. Guiche himself was pale – the offense for killing a familiar was quite severe. Never mind that he had only aimed non-lethal blows. It was hard to say who was more in shock – Guiche, or Louise. Most of the students were quietly slipping away now, but one or two with healing talents went forward to the... what could only be a corpse. There was always hope, after all...

As they examined the corpse, thoughts of expulsion filled Guiches mind. He'd be lucky if that was all he got away with. His friends had already slipped away, reluctant to associate with someone who had killed a familiar. Louise, for once, had company in her misery. Even if the cause was different. She hardly knew her familiar, and had found it unsettling – frightening even. But the prospect of gaining a powerful familiar – and just as quickly, losing it again...

Both students watched dully as the trainee water mages attempted their healing magic. Watched as they frowned... attempted some other spell... frowned further, and looked confused...

Neither Louise or Guiche had taken eyes off the healers for the past five minutes, all other students had now slipped away, and the healers themselves were busy attempting various spells on the fallen body. Thus, none saw the figure approaching from the direction of the academy until it slid past them, coming to a stop before Guiche.

[ Ub34L33t1: So did I win, or what?]

AUTHORS NOTES:

Yes, I know, I'm already falling away from that 'short but constant updates' plan I was having. But I've been enjoying myself with other projects too much. I think I'll have this in a sort of anime / tv show format – a series of short arcs.


	6. 第五章

第五章:

DISCLAIMER:

Not mine.

CHAPTER START:

Momorency and the other healers continued their examination of the familiar's body – and continued to run into problems. Their 'detect life' spells revealed only the ambient life of the grass below it, and all healing magic went right through it. As well as their hands, wands, and everything else. It was though it wasn't really there at all. What they essentially had in front of them was a ghost. But while a ghost was usually a spirit without a body, this one seemed to be... she didn't even know. A ghost of a dead body? As one who was familiar with spirits – albeit elemental spirits, this one was starting to spook Monmancy a fair bit. The familiar had been creepy in life, and was even more so in death. Trust the Zero... And then she noticed the other healers looking past her. Turned. Saw the now -live- familiar of zero... turned back, to the... ghost... And decided that nope, this was enough, thank you very much, and this would be a very good time to just leave. Quickly. Not running away, just leaving because the thing that was dead clearly wasn't dead and didn't need healers so she was leaving now.

Louise watched as the healers hurried back to the academy, almost but not quite running. Frequent glances over their shoulder to make sure her familiar wasn't following them. Something that resulted in at least one of them faceplanting as they tripped over the uneven ground.

A tiny part of her brain noted that she should probabally be finding this funny. But the majority was still recovering. Her Familliar. appeared. Then vanished. Then reappeared. Then dead. Then un-deaded just as... no. No!. She turned, a fresh batch of shock splashed across her face.

'Your not a zombie, are you? A liche? A vampire?'

Her words made Guiche recover a little, and he fumbled for his wand, lying at his feet where he had dropped it.

[ub3rL33t1: put the wand down dumbass]

Guiche ignored him, pointing his wand in the direction of the familliar, hands shanking. Her familiar bought up his gun to point at Guiche, and Louise screamed 'No! Drop it!'

Much to the surprise of all three, her familiar did. The weapon tumbled from his hands, and landed at his feet. Her familiar looked down at it for a minute... before moving forward over it, causing the weapon to disappear, and reappear in his hands. Still pointing at Guiche.

"Drop it!'

Once more, the gun dropped from his hands. _But why was he dropping it in the first place?_ Her familiar moved to pick it up again, and Louise ordered him to drop it once more. _What was going on? Think... Think..._ Louise and her familiar kept going through the same routine, while Guiche kept a trembling wand aimed at Uber, and Louise frantically tried to work out what was going on.

'Louise! Tell him not to pick it up again!' It was Mr Colbert, come from who-knows where. Louise quickly repeated his command, and her familiar left the weapon at it's feet... though it did glide over it a few times.

'What's going on here? Drop your wands at once!'

Guiche and Louise wern't quite as quick to obey as Louise's familiar had, but a glare from Mr Colbert quickly sent their wands to rest alongside Uber's gun.

Mr Colbert glared at the three of them – seemingly not put off at all by Uber's strange apperance. Or the mangled copy of him lying off to the left. 'Explain', he commanded...

TWENTY MINUTES LATER

Louise was feeling a bit stupid. Of course her familiar would obey her – The binding magic tied into the summoning ceremony had been made clear in the preparatory lessons they had to take in the weeks leading up to the ceremony. And as for being undead - Mr Colbert had pointed out, her familiar had already told them it's body here wasn't it's real form. Guiche of course knew none of this, and her familiar had given him a somewhat simplified explanation - that it was a spirit of sorts, inhabiting golims, and whenever his golim was destroyed it created a new one to inhabit.

The dawning realization of what this meant was slowly making Louise feel a little giddy. She had an undeniably powerful familiar under her control – one that was impossible to kill, very powerful, and under HER control. If she said jump, he wouldn't even stop to ask how high – he'd just jump. It was true that she still couldn't cast magic, but at least the teasing would stop. Who would dare tease her now – with her familiar by her side

With this in mind, and reassured by her ability to control it, she felt comfortable in having her familiar live with her. After all, if it wasn't dangerous, there was no reason it shouldn't be staying with her, right? And the fact that it's presence would put off some of the teasing by that horrible Zerbst woman was entirely coincidental. So when she ordered her familiar to follow her to her room and it refused, it came as a bit of a shock to her.

[ub3rL33t1: It's midnight here. I got classes in the morning. Everythings settled here and I need to get some sleep.]  
Louise stamped her feet. 'Your my familiar! Your supposed to obey me! In fact, your bound to obey me. So never mind your sleep, follow me!'  
[Ub3rL33t1: I may be your familiar in this world, but in my own world, I'm a uni student. A lot like you. I have my own obligations, and I don't consider following the orders of someone girl in my monitor to be more important than them.]

Louise's face went red, eyes flashing to Guiche – who oddly, wasn't gearing up to make fun of her for this act of treason by her familiar. Mr Colbert similarly seemed unconcerned by her failure to control her familiar, and seemed instead to be listening intently, analysing what was going on. None the less, she couldn't be shown up like this! Rumors would get around...  
'You're my familiar. You'll do what I say, and like it!. Now come over here and follow me.'

Louise pointed at her feet, and looked expectantly at her familiar, which... didn't move an inch.

[Ub3rl33t1: I'll do what I like. And while you can stop my character doing some things, it seems you can't force me to do them either. So you can take your attitude and shove it, kid]

Guiche actually cracked a smile. Louise flushed.

[Ub3rL33t1: I got a bunch of assignments to work on, and the only reason to come on here at all is to relax a little and have some fun. Your not fun. You're the opposite of fun. So I'll be back on when I feel like it. Don't like it? Stop being such a *****]

And with that, he disappeared.

Louise looked around, mortified. Thankfully, there was only two other people there. Mr Colbert – who was looking thoughtful. And Guiche. Who would normally be a problem. In fact, the beginnings of s smirk was creeping over his face... but no, it seems the shock of almost killing someones familiar hadn't completely faded. The boy's smirk faded before it had fully formed, and he shook his head, giving a disgusted snort at Louise, before heading back towards the academy

Louise shrugged. If the duel had traumatized the boy, perhaps that'd make up for some of the teasing she'd recieved. She turned to Mr Colbert.  
"Sir... about my familiar. Can I ask for some advice?"  
Mr Colbert sighed as he put away his thoughts, and slipped into his mentor role.  
"Yes Louise? What did you want to ask?"

THE NEXT DAY, LATE AFTERNOON

Siesta led the Count the remaining few steps to Principal Osmond's door.  
"Count Mott – The principals office."  
Siesta internally sighed, glad to be done with this particular chore. It wasn't that she had other things to do, more that... well...

"Thank you, my dear", the count said – taking her hand and planting a kiss upon it.  
"Your assistance has been as bountiful as your..." His eyes lingered on her breasts, before returning to her blushing face.  
"Well, I certainly appreciate your help. Alas, as much as I wish to enjoy your generous... hospitality, I have a message to deliver."  
And with one last roving glance across her figure, the count entered the office in front of him. Siesta grimaced, before returning to the kitchens, trying to put his words and lecherous gaze out of mind.

Behind the principals door, Count Mott was rolling out a royal message – an action slightly redundant, as he already knew it's contents, and was in the process of explaining them.

"A ghost-corpse? Outside the Academy walls? Yes, I am somewhat familiar with this"

Osmond puffed at his pipe.

"Perhaps the best person to explain this matter would be our Mr Colbert. He's outside the walls at the moment, however he should be returning within the hour. Would you care for some refreshments while we wait for his return? And if I can be just a little impudent – do you mind telling me the going-ons in the palace"?

Count Mott sighed. He had hope to have the lovely serving lady show him through the academy after his meeting. Instead, it seemed he would be spending the afternoon entertaining this doddering old fool.

"Certainly", he said, with a slightly forced smile.

"Nothing would make me happier."

AUTHORS NOTES:

I wrote most of this over about 3 hours, flying from Tas to my new / old home in Alice Springs. Since that was about six weeks ago, I guess it's been even longer than I thought since my last update. My apologies. Unfortunately, I'm doing upwards of 48 hour weeks now, so updates will be even more sporadic when they are.

This arc is now complete. I'll likely be bypassing Count Mott altogether, as I can't think of a reason for Uber to even learn about Siesta's reassignment, let alone any motivation for him to rescue her. It can be assumed that because he was unable to spend the extra time with her, he got distracted by another pretty girl, and didn't request her reassignment.


	7. Prologue

**ARC II  
CHAPTER I  
**

DISCLAIMER:

Not mine.

For once, Adant was finished early. His major assignment wasn't due till Monday morning, but rather than leave most of it for the last weekend like he usually did, this time he was actually finished by Friday night. A fact that may have been influenced by his classmate's invitation to spend the weekend with her up on the coast. Adant had actually finished half an hour ago, and was basking in the self-satisfied glow of completion. A glow not half helped by what was now his second beer. That comforting sense of self satisfaction was stifled somewhat when the front door not-quite-slammed, and Brent stomped through the house. Adante sighed, and put down his beer.

Ever since Brent's computer had stuffed up two weeks ago, he'd been getting crabbier and crabbier. Apparently it'd still work for assignments, but it was stuffed when it came to games now. And the worst of it was, Brent wouldn't let him fix it. Adant had been the one who had built it for Christ's sake! Brent had kept asking Adant if he could use his laptop for gaming, but Adant had needed it for his assignments. Something that hadn't improved Brent's mood any. But he was done with his assignment now... Adant grabbed his laptop and stood up, heading for the kitchen.

ONE HOUR LATER

Adant sighed, glanced over at Brent on his laptop, and checked his watch. Still five hours till Sarah picked him up. From the furious hand movements over the mouse and keyboard, and the ferocious expression on his face, Adant really didn't feel like disturbing him. But with nothing on TV, no laptop to use himself, and no housemate to talk to, there was absolutely nothing to do. The tinny sounds of battle floated through the headphones, and the clock ticked... and Adant stewed. then got up, having decided. Enough of this nonsense! He'd fix Brent's computer, permission be dammed.

The machine booted normally enough, and Brent's password was embarrassingly easy to get past. Honestly, who was stupid enough to use their date of birth as a password anyway? And then put 'birthday' as the hint? While the machine slowly loaded, Adant grabbed a snack from the kitchen, passing an oblivious Brent. While his housemate clicked his forces of tanks and infantry through the enemy defenses, Adant seated himself at the finally-loaded computer. Grabbing a slice of cold pizza and cracking his third beer, he sorted his thoughts.

Obviously, before he could fix the problem, he'd need to see what it was. Brent had been very vague in that regard. So... which game should he test first?

Brent frowned in puzzlement. He'd been playing several hours now. He'd started with this year's Real Time Strategy, but for some reason the normally robust enemy AI had made blindingly obvious moves the entire game. He'd tried playing online, but everyone online seemed to be a noob at the moment. He would have liked to play his tactical shooter, but Adant was more of a casual gamer, and didn't have any of the more hardcore games loaded. So he'd had to settle for Counterstrike.

Now Brent knew he wasn't the best CS player in the world, but he was still wiping the floor with his opponents. They were accusing him of using hacks, but it wasn't that at all – he just somehow knew how to play, now. How to aim, how to move to avoid being hit, how to move around the maps – it all came to him as though he'd been playing for years.

What was going on? And what was with that Nordic symbol that seemed to be etched on every unit he commanded?

Louise stood at the back of the crowd, fidgeting nervously. It had been three weeks since her familiar's duel with Guiche, and he hadn't appeared since. Rumors were starting to circle that he wouldn't appear again. That he had fled. Or that he really had died. Thankfully, the rumors were quiet. After Guiches humiliation, no on openly mocked her any more, but she still heard a lot sniggering whenever her back was turned.

The student on the stage bowed and left with his familiar, and the next student ascended the stage, his bugbear floating behind him.

She had been meeting with Mr Colbert on a regular basis. She had originally asked Mr Colbert on ways she could force her familiar to listen. How she could force him to obey. Her mother had always insisted she have a will of steel. That she dominate those around her through sheer force of her personality. In absence of her mother, Mr Colbert was the only person she could really turn to for advice. Mr Colbert had gently but insistently tried to tell her she was wrong, though. That the way to gaining her familiar's obedience was not through domination, but through gaining it's respect.

The mere thought of treating her familiar as an equal made her want to scream. Magic or no, she was a noble. Not just a noble, but a Valliere! Yet she could see no alternative. As much as she looked, she could see no way of forcing him into his proper role of familiar. As much as she hated it – as much as it humiliated her to her core, she needed him, and he didn't need her at all.

The idea of her bowing to the needs of her familiar sickened her – but... he was such a powerful familiar. Even with his absence, the teasing she had received had gone down. Even the teachers treated her differently now. She had always been good at the theory, and now she gained a lot more recognition for this.

There was general applause from the audience, and the student with his bugbear left the stage. The next student was called – a mousy-haired girl with an owl.

One or two of the teachers – Mr Colbert in particular, had wanted to find out just how accurate she could be with her explosions, too. Her explosions had always been a source of embarrassment to her, and it had taken a long time before her teachers could convince her they weren't trying to make fun of her.

But none of this helped her now. Now was the presentation ceremony. Where the second year students showed off their familiars. The tricks, skills, and general rapport they had developed with their familiar. Not just to the student body this year, but to the princess too.

And – powerful or not, Louise's familiar hadn't even showed up.

She had tried leaving notes in the stables. She had used some of her allowance to bribe some of the other students to send it a message with magical means. But nothing had worked. She might hate the idea of having to earn her familiar's co-operation, but she was still willing to do it. But none of that mattered if it never came back...

And now it was the presentation ceremony, and she had nothing to show.

Another student was called. And now it was just Louise. Mr Colbert spared a glance at her, and Louise hated the hidden pity in his eyes. Hated everything.

Well, not everything was bad.

The princess had come to visit her. And if she had a lot of questions about her mysterious familiar, could she really blame her? Her dark mood lifted briefly as she thought of the Princesses visit the night before. Of an old childhood friendship renewed. Her mood returned though, on thinking of the princess waiting in the audience. About to see her humiliation.

'Louise De Valliere?'

Her stomach sinking through the floor, Louise swallowed, took a step towards the stage... and then the stables exploded.

As the bleating of animals and cries of panicked students mingled with the cloud of dust blossoming from the collapsed stables, a handful of accusing eyes pierced the youngest of the Vallier sisters.

The girl blushed, first embarrassed, then angry. 'It wasn't me, alright!?'

AUTHORS NOTES:

Wow. I just checked, and almost two months since my last update.

Thanks largely to the insane amount of hours I was being asked to do, I've given notice at work, and will finish mid-feb. In an effort to keep me, they've reduced my hours to thirty-six a week. Which is why I've now got the time to bring this out.

I've really only got about half the ideas I need for the next chapter. I might try just writing it and see where it takes me. But if that doesn't work, you can probably expect another month or two...


	8. Arc II Chapter 2

**ARC II**

 **CHAPTER TWO**

Disclaimer: Not Mine.

LOUISE

A sense of deja vu flashed through Louise's mind, as the teachers funneled the dust away, allowing the crowd of students to move closer to the collapsed stables, and rescue whatever familiars weren't already out on display.

Right where her familiar should have been, was yet another _thing_. While her familiar had previously mimicked the form of some soldier/wizard hybrid, this time it seemed to be mimicking...

She really didn't know.

While she was examining it, the guards – both those guarding the princess, and those assigned to the college, moved in to take up a rough circle around the thing. And where the last thing she summoned could be mistaken as harmless, this... could not.

It looked a little bit like an upturned metal boat, except there was a lot of metal wheels underneath it, wrapped around with some kind of metal belt. And there was something like a smaller upside down metal boat thing on top of it, with a thick metal pipe sticking out of it. There were metal plates with handles on them, and metal things with glass inside, and metal... everything. Iron wasn't expensive compared to gold or silver, but Louise didn't even want to think about how much something like the thing in front of her would have cost. It was huge! Easily enough for several people to fit inside... and looking over it with fresh eyes, Louise could see the plates with handles were hatches, and the things with glass must have been viewports. It had to be some sort of vehicle. Some sort of... landship, or something.

And then the thing moved. It gave out a deep growl, spat out black smoke from it's rear, and the wheels spun, churning the belt against the ground – completely without any effect, as it was half-buried in fallen masonry. With a whining of machinery, the upturned thing on top swiveled, and the pipe lowered, pointing first at a group of guards, then at the castle, then at the group of students – revealing the swirl etched on the inside of the pipe. Exactly like the one etched on the inside of the fast-firing musket her familiar had carried.

While the things movement had made many of the students back off, and the guards and various nobles raise their various weapons and staffs, they all relaxed somewhat when they realized it was still immobilized by the rubble. Louise, however, remained frozen, blood rapidly draining from her face, as the barrel of what had to be a cannon continued pointing at her. It moved... but she didn't feel any better when it pointed at the Princess instead. If her familiar killed the princess...

Wait a second... HER familiar.

"Don't Fire!"

Her words seemed to have no effect. The thing still tried to move, and swiveled it's cannon around to point at different things... but at least it wasn't actually firing.

BRENT

Brent no longer cared what was going on. He had missed this. Competing against bots was all well and good, but nothing beat the feeling of completely crushing a human enemy. Or a whole series of them, in this case. Collecting a set of grenades and ammo off the fallen enemy in front of him, he ducked behind cover, reloading his plasma rifle. He hadn't quite seen the pair of enemy heavies – but they had to have been there, and seen his brief foray out for supplies. Which meant they should be coming out right about...

Brent strafed out of cover a half second before the heavies launched a rocket into the front of it, and unloaded his disintergrator pistol right into the visor on the first heavie's helmet.

...

Or he would have, if his gun had actually fired.

Rather than this, Brent ducked out of cover, and danced around, waving his gun ineffectively in the general direction of his enemies until they lobbed another rocket at him.

As the respawn counter ticked down, Brent frowned. What just happened?

LOUISE

Several minutes went by, and Louise started to relax. The thing wasn't firing, and it didn't seem to be able to move. Mr Colbert had spoken to the guards and asked her to talk to it, but either this new thing was unable to hear her, or it wasn't paying any attention. Nothing she said made any difference to how it acted. Was it even her familiar? This one didn't have her familiar's tattoo on it, after all. But, what else could it be? And it did sort of have the same... look, as her familiar. It was completely different of course, but the rifled cannon, the woodland-themed paint scheme... if it wasn't her familiar, it at least came from the same place.

While Louise considered the likely origins of the metal contraption, the nobles around her debated the merits of lifting the masonry off it. None of this mattered however, as with a sudden pop, it disappeared.

The nobles all used various detection spells, but with no result. It simply wasn't there. Mr Colbert came hurrying over, and asked if she had any ideas about where it had gone – but from his countenance, it was obvious he didn't really expect her to know. Halfway through her reply however, there was another 'pop', and the metal beast re-appeared.

Wait. It wasn't the same beast. The other one had been a sort of creamy-brown, and was absolutely huge. This one was a sort of bluey-green, was less than half the height of the other one, and was much shorter. It still had a metal bucket thing on top, but this one was much flatter. Most of the nobles could see over the top of this one. However, the most important difference was that the vehicle hadn't appeared under all the rubble, like the previous thing – instead ,appearing twenty meters to the right, on flat ground with nothing to prevent it moving.

Shortly after it appeared, it started growling and belching smoke – grabbing the attention of those who hadn't already noticed it's reappearance. Despite being free of the rubble, the vehicle didn't seem to be moving. It would move the barrel up and down, and the bucket thing from side to side, but didn't move the wheels on the ground at all.

And then, after about half a minute, it did. The beast roared, the metal belt around them spun, and the vehicle shot forward at a speed unbelievable in something so massive. The nobles had slowly been crowding in around it, and it was a small miracle none had been hit by it as it shot off.

Showing a maneuverability that again belied it's size, it curved around the makeshift stage and royal pavilion, and was only a few seconds away from the open gateway when Louise's 'STOOOOOP' floated through the air. The vehicle swerved slightly, but otherwise kept going, disappearing around the corner. Louise – and the staff, students, and royal guard paused for a minute... then rushed after it.

BRENT

Since none of his guns seemed to work any more, Brent had switched to a knife. Bringing a knife to a gun fight might make things insanely difficult normally – but with how stupid his enemies were playing now, he was still getting about the same kills per minute he'd normally be getting with a gun. The extra challenge made it more satisfying, too. He'd already racked up five kills with his knife, and for the past minute had been stalking an enemy sniper, waiting for him to set up camp. Brent was just moving in for the kill when his screen froze. Only it hadn't. The guy was still moving, slightly. Adjusting his aim, and firing, with Brent right behind him, knife at the ready, just standing there.

Brent tried frantically to get his figure moving – disconnecting and reconnecting the mouse, alt-tabbing out of the game and back into it – but it was only the controls in the game that weren't responding. Just like when...

The sniper in front of him finished his magazine, and reloaded. And must have spotted Brent while doing so, because he quickly sidestraffed and switched weapons to his pistol. Brent cursed, but there was absolutely nothing he could do. After a panicked shot into his chest – which reduced his health to 30%, the sniper seemed to realize it too – shot him a few times in the leg, reducing his health to below 5%, before getting behind him and slowly nudging his player-character towards the rather high cliff he'd been camping on.

Brent swore, frantically pulling out and reconnecting the mouse again, just in case... but still no response, just as his character was pushed off the edge. With the 'YOU HAVE DIED' message, he swore again, and quit. Time to sort this out now!

LOUISE:

Louise panted to a stop on the other side of the gateway, behind a crowd of not-moving teachers, royal guards and teachers. All looking up, for some reason. Had her metallic vehicle golem thing started flying or something? She couldn't hear it's roar any more... Her eyes went up to see what they were looking at, and...

She couldn't see the metal creature golem thing that seemed to be her familiar. Instead... Her eyes, like the eyes of the other teachers, students and royal guards, were drawn up. Up, and up, and up, where a giant golem made of earth had been slamming it's massive fists against the Academy main tower.

Nobles didn't swear. Nobles – by virtue of being noble, weren't ever in the company of those who swore – at least in their presence. Nor were they ever allowed to read the sort of pulp that contained such vulgar language. Thus, the words that came from Louise's mouth on spotting the giant earth golem couldn't have been swearwords.

First her familiar had been some sort of undead golem, then a metal bucket thing, now a giant animated statue? What next? The lord of the underworld? Louise started chuckling unsteadily to herself, eyes wide. The giant turned to face the crowd in front of it, and an overconfident laugh rang out from it's shoulder.

'Well, I may have overestimated your defenses this time, but I'll be back'.

Louise stopped, confused. It could talk, too? Then she noticed the robed figure sitting on the giant's shoulder. The giant started striding for the walls, and a barrage of spells slammed into it – everything from ice magic to fireballs to... was that a tree trunk? But they all had no effect – except for the woman disappearing off the shoulder, to hide behind the bulk of the creature.

So the woman was controlling it? It wasn't her familiar? As the giant reached the academy walls and started thumping it's way through them, Louise finally spotted the metal creature from earlier – previously hidden by the crowd.

Another barrage of spells blasted ineffectually into the back of the giant, who had knocked over enough of the wall to start forcing its way through.

Louise started running in the direction of her metal familiar.

'Shoot it. I don't know what you are, but just shoot it already.'

The blue-gray object swiveled on the spot, the belt on it's wheels tearing up the turf. It raised it's barrel, and...

Well, to be honest, compared to the noise being created by all the wind, fire, ice and earth spells, the sound of her familiar firing it's cannon wasn't overwhelming. It was noticeable, but there was so much chaos being created by the Nobles magic that it fit in nicely. There was a Boom, and one of the legs of the thing started to crumble. The entire Golem staggered, before bracing itself on the walls it was trying to batter through. Once braced, a mass of grass and earth surged up from around it's wounded leg, filling in the gaping hole left by the explosion. Projectiles of ice, stone, and water continued to bombard the Golem, but the golem didn't notice – finishing healing its leg, before... 'Boom.' Again from her metallic familiar thing. This time, it's head. There wasn't much left of it- just a stump of a neck. Louise was cursing the stupidity of her familiar – taking it's head out wouldn't destroy the golem. The only way to destroy it would be to do enough damage that the magic used to heal it was overwhelmed.

Yet – the golem didn't seem to be healing. In fact, it was very quickly crumbling back to earth. But how? As long as it was being sustained with it's caster's magic... And then Louise saw the bits of bloody meat pasted against the walls, remembered the robed figure that had been hiding at the front of the golem... and vomited up her breakfast.

AUTHORS NOTES

Four months since my last update, and I've kind of run out of excuses. I guess all I can say is while I still enjoy writing on rare occasions, I can't seem to get passionate about it any more. Maybe some time in the future.

Oh, for reference, Louise's command to 'not fire' had no effect on the tank. Adant just isn't the sort of person to shoot at a crowd of civilians, even in-game.

OMAKE

Brent came home, and immediately knew something was wrong. There was something about his housemates sickly grin that made it immediately obvious.

'Alright. What did you do?'

'Well I know you told me not to use your computer, but, like, I was seriously bored. So... Well, I think I broke your computer.'

Brent followed his housemate into his room.

'At first I was going to play World of Tanks, but that's kinda getting a bit stale, you know? So I booted up World of Warships instead.'

Sure enough, a 190 meter long battleship sat resting on the remains of the stables, and crushed both the front and rear of the walls guarding the Tristanian Academy of Magic. The headset was unplugged, so his room was full of the bleats, chirps and squeals of terrified animals, and the just as terrified sounds of their owners. And, for some reason, there was a giant earth golem clambering over the superstructure of the battleship.

Brent looked on in disbelief. 'What the hell?'


	9. Arc II Chapter 3

**ARC II**

 **CHAPTER THREE**

 **Disclaimer: Not Mine.**

BRENT:

He hadn't even really wondered where Adent had gone – he'd been enjoying himself gaming too much. But retrospectively, on seeing Adant in his room, on his computer, he did realise Adant hadn't really been around much in the last half hour. And...

Then his eyes took in what game Adant was playing, and his thought process crashed.

This wasn't a tactical shooter. Adant was controlling a tank. Well not really controlling it. He'd just shot something, from the looks of it. Something... huge.

Adant just sat there motionless. Even more motionless than a normal gamer. Not even a mouse-click. No keyboard presses. Just looking at the people surrounding the tank. The mound of falled dirt. And the battered hole in the wall, splattered in blood.

... Splattered in blood. But... this was a real game. Setting. Whatever. And Adant didn't know...

With a growing sense of dread, Brent ripped Adant's headphones off.

'What did you do?'

Adant looked up at him. 'Dude – I got no fucking idea. I mean, what the Fuck, man. I'm out. Just...'

He shook his head, then stood up and headed for the door.

'I don't know what's up with your computer. Don't want to know. This is a bit fat _Nope_ from me. Just keep that fucker away from me.'

Brent sighed, then sat down and putting on the headphones. Time to find out what the damage was...

LOUISE:

Louise stood shakely, wiping off some of the vile liquid from her chin. Looking around, she absently noticed she hadn't been alone in vomiting. Violence wasn't uncommon in their society, and if Fouquet had been caught, she would have been hung anyway – but such events were usually much less public. And certainly, the children of the elete were somewhat sheltered from such things.

She was bought out of her horrified facination with the red gibblets decorating the academy walls by the red-haired harlot nudging her shoulder. When Louise looked at her, Kirche was pointing at the metal beast. Or rather, by the text floating above it.

[Ub3rL33t1: Sorry. Wasn't me. Housemate used my computer. Is Louise there?]

For the shortest of moments, Louise considered sneaking away, before anyone could notice. But there was already a lot of people who had seen it. Who were, once more, looking right at her. Louise sighed, a familiar leaden weight settling in her stomach, and walked through the crowd, up to the beast. Somewhat reassuringly, the beast wasn't moving at all now. It's low growl was still going on, and the smoke still belched from it's rear, but otherwise – nothing.

[Ub3rL33t1: So – what happened?]

Louise frowned. 'I should be asking you that. What did you do? Why didn't my commands not work...' She hesitated, looking at the immobile creature.

'At least – why did they not work earlier? They appear to work now.'

Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed the crowd pulling back a little – letting her talk with her familiar. Well, at least they wern't outright blaming her. They were actually giving her a chance to prove herself, if you wanted to look at it that way...

And one of the crowd was the princess. Looking at her with such faith...

What should she even say?

She hesitated, and the metal thing continued to sit there.

'The creature you destroyed, and the mage you killed...' her eyes started sliding to the splattered wall, but she swallowed, and kept them firmly on the creature.

'They were attempting to damage the academy. You were right to defend us...'

She noticed some of the crowd nodding, and internally sighed in relief. The words were as much for the crowd as for her familiar.

'... but you should have asked my permission first – and you definately should have obeyed my commands. As my familiar, I am held responsible for your actions. Should you injure...'

A line of text appeared above the thing, and she stopped.

[Ub3rL33t1: Sorry, can't hear a damn thing over the engine. One sec, I'll plug in the mike and headphone.]

There was a muffled tittering from the crowd, and Louise reddened. To have her familiar interupt her in front of everyone... But there was nothing she could do about that now. She had no real way of punishing her familiar...

'HELLO?'

Louise jumped, and whirled around, but no one was there.

The word had been spoken loudly, right into her ear.

'OH GOOD. I WASN'T SURE IF THIS WOULD WORK'.

Louise was grimacing and had her hands over her ears by the end of the sentence.

'sorry about that guess i had it a little loud. uh, can you say something?'

'Uh... Hello?'

Louise's voice was soft and hesitant, but the strange voice... her familiars? Seemed to hear her all the same.

'What did my housemate do? Did he kill someone?'

Louise could hear the suppressed horror in the voice, and didn't know what to make of it. Was this really her familiar? The inhuman monstrosity that had completely wiped out Guiche,come back from the dead, possessed this metal thing, and annihilated Fouquet with his first shot?

'Yes...' she replied, somewhat absently. 'She was using a giant earth Golem to attack the academy tower for some reason. You really weren't in control?'

There wasn't any reply.

'Anyway, from the looks of it, you did us all a favour.' She waved her hand over the crowd – who were looking at her somewhat oddly. 'We were doing our best to stop it, but... Well, you took it down in your first shot.'

'My housemate. Not me.'

Louise shrugged.

'Louise...'

This voice came from behind her, and didn't have the strange accent she'd noticed her familiar using. Mr Colbert.

'You can speak with your familiar, now?'

Louise nodded.

'What does he say?'

Louise frowned. 'You can't hear him?'

Mr Colbert shook his head. 'Ask him how he knew Fouquet would attack the tower. And – how many other forms can he take.'

Louise nodded, and turned to her familiar expectantly.

There was a moments silence, while Louise waited for Brent to reply.

Then another moment's silence...

Finally... 'Well?' Louise never was known for her patience. Least of all when being the center of attention in a huge crowd.

'Well what? I told you, I can't hear a thing over the engine. I can hear what you say – I guess, cause your my owner or something. But that teacher guy? Not at all. If he has a question, you'll have to ask it'.

Louise reddened. Her familiar was a lot less formal when speaking rather than writing. But at least she was the only one who could hear his disrespect... She was getting a lot of strange looks from the crowd surrounding her though... Talking to yourself is never a good sign, after all.

'Oh – it sounds like your talking right into my ear. How far away can I move before the communication spell stops working?'

There was the rustle of cloth, which was probabally Brent shrugging. 'Shouldn't matter how far you go. But this match only has another four minutes left... If you're gunna move somewhere, you better hurry.'

Louise nodded. Turned to Mr Colbert, and explained. He asked her the obvious question, and she passed it along.

'I don't know what my room-mate did before, but yes, once the match ends I can start it again. It'll likely take a minute before I can get back in, but I'll have another fifteen minutes to talk once I do. Three minutes, by the way. Oh, and can you let me move again?'

Louise looked at the creature dubiously. This thing had the ability to kill. It was unbelievably powerful. Did she really want to let it loose? Surrounded by nobles?

'Uh... you just killed someone. The nobles are deeply concerned. I don't think it prudent to release you at this time.'

There was silence, and Louise bit her lip nervously. She really, really didn't want to lose her familiar...

'Fine. I guess I can understand. Timers almost up. See you soon.'

And as Louise was framing her reply, the tank disappeared.

The match having timed-out into a draw, Brent signed out of Adant's account, and into his own, absently wondering what he'd need to do to pull a win in the 'game' – given that there wasn't any enemy tanks to destroy, or bases to capture. It was a little more than five minutes later that he respawned next to the stables. Not in the light french tank his friend favoured, but into one of his early artillary vehicles. Unlike the rest of his vehicles, the SPG had the gunner positions open to outside view – meaning the game developers had needed to model the seats and things they sat on. Judging from past experience, the player characters were presented as modelled, not as what they represented – meaning the hatches and doors on the tanks would be completely immobile, and there wouldn't be any interior to the tanks. The Russian-made SU-26 he had chosen was not the best of artillary pieces, but he wasn't intending to fight with it. He'd mostly chosen it in case they wanted a ride in the thing.

He spun his mouse around to check his location, and noticed the stables had a large portion of it that had been collapsed. Brent muttered a little curse in the direction of the departed Adant. The large crowd that had been surrounding him earlier was gone now. No, not gone, but held back. Way back, They were pressing against the guards at the gateway, and peering at him over the walls and through windows, but didn't seem to be allowed into the courtyard itself.

That is, with the exception of a well-endowed girl in overly-ornate clothing and a tiara, and his... Brent grimaced. ... his mistress.

'So, who's the chick with the massive breasts?'

Louise flushed, thanking Sigmar the princess couldn't hear him.

'Princess Henrietta, may I introduce you to my familiar, uh...'

'Brent', he supplied.

'Brent. He... Well, Mr Colbert already sent you a report, so I guess you know most of it, but anything you don't know, I could tell you, I guess.'

Given how flustered Louise was, this princess had to be a big deal. Yet besides the finery, she didn't seem that stuck-up. Didn't seem to exude power the way those who led often did. So – probabally not born to rule, then? Born to be married off, while the son's ruled? Or perhaps 'Princess' didn't literally mean 'daughter of the ruler', but was more like a duchess or something...

But there wasn't enough information to go on, and the princess was speaking.

There was an awkward pause after she finished, before Louise apparently remembered he couldn't hear a word anyone said, and paraphrased.

'Princess Henrietta thanks you for your help with the mage-theif, and welcomes you to Tristain.'

Brent mutted a 'cheers', distracted. The proper thing to do would be to at least nod his head. But his entire tank was still locked up by Louises' command. And how would he 'nod his head', since he didn't have one at the moment? He could bob his barrel up and down perhaps...

Louise was still speaking. Paraphrasing his reply to the princess.

'... grateful for your personal welcome to Tristain, and the honour it bestows upon his humble self.'

Brent snorted, but Louise finished without any indicator she had heard. The princess replied, and Louise went a happy sort of pink, before translating.

'Princess Henrietta thanks you for choosing to become the familiar of her dear childhood friend'

Louse was actually beaming. Embarassed at the praise, but visibly thrilled. '... and uh... hopes you will serve the kingdom as well as you serve me.'

Brent sighed. 'Serving the kingdom'? He really didn't want to get involved here. It was obviously a real world, but he just didn't have the time. His marks at university were starting to slide, and he was having a hard time getting his weekly readings done as it was.

But – as annoying as Louise was, he couldn't really say 'no' to her when she was this happy. It'd be like kicking a puppy.

The princess had been talking while he thought, and Louise once more passed them on.

'The princess would like to meet with you again tomorrow. The damage done to the wall, your execution of the Crumbling Sands and your new apperance and abilities need to be reported to the palace, and she needs to talk to her advisors before she can say more.'

Brent had an assignment due tomorrow. It was mostly finished though. All written, just needed polishing. Still...

'I can't make it tomorrow – gotta study. Can make it the day after though.'

Louise make an intersting set of faces, before hissing

'It's The Princess! You don't turn down invitations from the princess!'

Brent shrugged. Not that Louise could see that. 'If I don't have time, I don't have time. Do you know how flat out I am tomorrow?'

Zoomed in as he was, he could see Louise almost start trembling.

'Please? She half-spat, half begged. 'You represent me. If you say know, I'm accountable! You have to do this. You really really have to...'

She was still whispering her words, but the princess and guards were watching her, puzzled expressions on their faces.

Brent sighed. Again.

'I should be finished by... five pm tomorrow. I can meet her after then. Uh... I don't know what the time is here, but it'd be about one hour closer to sunset.

Louise sagged with relief, and passed on his message. They quickly agreed upon a location, and Brent logged out.

To see Adant standing at his shoulder. 'So what's going on, then?'

AUTHORS NOTES:

I've decided to go back to University to do a masters in teaching. Oddly enough, the added purpose to my life has re-kindled my interest in writing.

I re-read the story up to this point before doing this chapter. I think once I finish the story, I'm going to have to do some serious editing.

Can't really say anything about the chapter itself. I'm not especially happy with it, but it does everything it needs to. The story's coming to a close (though there may or may not be a short sequel a long way down the track). Even if it has mostly been talking heads, I'm planning to have it end with a bang. Or a lot of bangs.


	10. Arc II Chapter 4

**ARC II**

 **CHAPTER FOUR**

 **Disclaimer: Not Mine.**

'So I'll see you tomorrow then.'

Brent waited till Louise hand passed on his message – in much more formal language, of course, and waited for the princess's farewell. He sighed in relief as he logged out, and removed his headphones – and noticed Adant standing by his shoulder.

'So what's going on, then?'

Brent sighed again.

'So yeah, when I said not to fix my computer, I meant it. In fact, don't even touch it from now on.'

'Whats Going On?' Adant was just about growling.

'My computer's buggered. Or cursed. Or something. Seems every time I load a game, I end up in the same spot. Seems to be a real location on the other side of the monitor too... kinda weird though...'

Adant scoffed. 'They got magic. That place Can't be real. Also... hello? Your game avatars can interact with them. It's fake.'

Brent shrugged. 'They don't react like any bots I've ever seen. Maybe your right, and it's all a prank. Or it's some sort of advanced game being streamed in over the net or something. Believe me, I've been thinking about it. But what if it is real? You killed someone in there earlier. Turned out to be a bad guy, but you killed someone. If this thing is real, they're dead. Could have just as easily killed one of the teachers, or the students...'

He sighed again.

'I'm working on the assumption it's real. Because if I treat it like it's real and it's not – no harm done. But if I treat it like a game and it's real... Anyway, please stay off my computer.'

Adent nodded reluctantly. 'I still think it's fake, somehow. But I can see why you wouldn't want to test that.'

He paused.

'By the way, what's with your results on my laptop?

'What?'

'My laptop. Battle results screen is still up. And I've been looking over your past battles. No-one gets results like that.'

'Not sure. I think it might have something to do with this whole... thing.' he said, pointing at his computer. 'Only noticed it this afternoon. But then, this is the first time I've played since my computer started acting up.'

'But... That's my laptop. If they infected your computer, that's one thing, but how could they...?'

Adant paused, in thought.

'Come with me. I got a mate across town with a gaming computer. We need to see if it's the computers, or if it's you.'

He grabbed Brent by the arm, and started dragging him to the door.

'But... study...'

His protests ignored, the front door slammed, and a minute later, their car left.

AN HOUR LATER

Adant and his friend stared at Brent as he obliterated the players on-screen. The cries of 'Hax' and 'Bot' were constant. They'd been playing for close to three-quarters of an hour now, and Brent's Kill/Death ratio was at an insane level.

Brent sighed and leaned back from the keyboard, match over.

'So', Adant's friend said. 'Ever think about playing professionally?'

THE NEXT DAY – 3:30 pm

...The native given most characterisation is Friday. After his rescue and conversion, Defoe portrays him as being better than Robinson in all ways. He is a better shot ( _Robinson Crusoe,_ 216), a better Christian ( _Robinson Crusoe,_ 204), and proves more capable in a crisis ( _Robinson Crusoe,_ 274).

Although Robinson still treats the rescued and converted Friday as a social inferior, this should not be taken as Defoe's beliefs about native inferiority. Robinson himself subjugates not only natives, but Spanish and British subjects as well. The sub-theme of social dominance within the novel is complex and well worth exploring, but lies outside the scope of this paper...

Brent sighed wearily, and took another sip from the cup of tea by his side, long since gone cold. He opened up the tab with the MLA referencing guide, cross-checked, and deleted the second and third _Robinson Crusoe_. Then took another sip of his cold tea, sighed a second time, and kept reading.

...These lurid and almost parodic descriptions do appear to be excessive, but is Dutheil's reading corect? The novel is not short of fantastic descriptions outside of its depiction of natives. The boys' island is described as a paradise and despite the constant claims of the author to the contrary, inconvenient truths are often either ignored completely or mentioned only in passing. The coconuts on Ballantyne's deserted island can be opened in seconds with a broken pen-knife, and the coconut milk within tastes similar to lemonade. (24-25). Hunting and Fishing takes no great skill to master (48, 77-79) and shark attacks – while dangerous, can be foiled by quick thinking and pluck (53).

While _Robinson Crusoe_ tells us that with months of hard work, perseverance, and a ship full of tools, any aspect of civilisation can be recreated, similar achievements are accomplished by Ballantyne's protagonists in a few days using nothing more than a broken pen knife...

Brent's mind drifted. The surprise here was that Robinson Crusoe wasn't as unrealistic as Coral Island. Fiction usually wasn't realistic. People used it to get away from the problems of their life, after all, and the way books tied everything together at the end re-affirmed that life had some kind of meaning, even if we were unable to see it. Happy endings might be cliche, but they were cliche for a reason. Of course, main characters that effortlessly burned through their problems didn't lead to the most interesting of stories – usually. The Coral Island book was a case in point. Although it was possible to have overpowered characters and still have a fun story. There was superman, batman... pretty much every super-hero movie, really.

He frowned.

Of course, suddenly becoming overpowered like that could cause as many problems as it solved. Like himself in that... game world thing. Tristonia? He could do so much damage there without even thinking about it if he wasn't careful. What if he loaded some gigantic spaceship, or an aircraft carrier or something? It'd probably crush everything in the academy. And that was just the obvious dangers.

The words of his assignment sat patiently in front of him, and he sighed, took a third sip from his tea, and continued reading.

...While aimed at an older audience, to the modern reader _Robinson Crusoe_ reveals the same dissonance. While Robinson Crusoe becomes a devout Christian throughout the book, he has no hesitation in killing his fellow man when necessary. Violence is not held to be unchristian, and is even shown to be sometimes necessary in preforming your Christian duty...

Brent changed 'preforming' to performing' absently. The crowd yesterday had seemed rather ambivalent at his housemates execution of the thief. He'd even been praised for it. A society where death was commonplace... Brent frowned. Of course, there were many places in the world where the death penalty still applied. But there was usually at least a trial first. And an executioner isn't someone who would normally receive praise. The values dissonance between his own culture and that of this 'Tristain' place... He frowned again, and shook his head, before checking the time. Forty-five minutes till it needed to be submitted... He got back to work.

ONE HOUR LATER

With a pop, Brent re-appeared by the newly-restored stables. Adant had been torn between staying for the meeting and going, but in the end, he decided a weekend at the beach with the girl he had a crush on was more important.

Set up in front of him was a small pavilion, underneath which sat a variety of nobles snacking and lightly talking with each other. Imposing looking guards stood around the tent.

His arrival was noticed immediately by the guards – one of which turned and notified what appeared to be a VIP table. The nobles seated there stood, and Brent recognized Louise and the princess. The conversation from the other tables died down, as they noticed their main guest had arrived.

The princess slowly walked towards him, with Louise and one or two especially-important looking nobles following a step behind. Four of the imposing guards walked with them, trying to assess him and what sort of threat he might be.

The princess stopped before him, and looked him over.

'You are... Brent?' She sounded a little confused. 'You look different from the human form Louise described.'

Brent nodded – but they wouldn't see that.

He spoke into the microphone... but she gave no sign she heard.

He sighed. This particular game didn't have voice-chat, so it made sense..

The princess was looking a bit antsy at his lack of response as he tried bringing up the text-chat box – but of course it didn't have one. This game was single-player, and didn't need chat...

At the princesses uncertain look, Louise stepped forward.

'Orange trousers and a white top – and female... He _looks_ different. But kind of the same too. _Wrong_ in the same way.' She looked Brent in the face. 'Ok, if you can understand me... If you're Brent, move from left to right.'

Brent tried. His commands weren't working...

Louise snapped her fingers. 'Right, I locked your movement again when you re-appeared. Brent, you can move now.'

He sidestraffed left and right.

'Can you talk at the moment?'

He stopped moving.

'Well how are we going to do this then?

He was still...

Louise looked at him expectantly.

He stood there quietly, and there was an expectant silence... Then, with a 'pop', he was gone.

Louise sighed. 'Idiot.'

FIVE MINUTES LATER

Brent re-appeared – This time in the same soldiers outfit he wore before.

The princess turned from her conversation with some of her nobles, and turned, waiting.

Brent glided up to her – at a walk. Wishing vaguely that the animations for walking didn't look quite so militaristic. He changed the voice chat to 'direct', and dropped into a crouch.

'Your highness'

The princess gave a small start at actually hearing him, but not enough to break her composure.

'You may rise.'

He returned to his feet.

'Brent – Familiar of Louise. I have already heard much of your abilities, and observed them for myself yesterday. You are bound as Louise's Familiar, as she is now bound as your mistress. Yet I have been told your will is still your own, and you have no great desire to serve Tristania. Have I heard true?

The princess was holding herself well, but there were subtle signs of nervousness. Her words seemed a touch stiltish – as though they had been written by one of her advisors. She really wasn't born to rule, was she? A figurehead? But the time for wondering about that wasn't now.

Brent looked at the sky, then the ground, attempting to nod. Then wondered if that particular mannerism meant the same thing in this fantasy culture. But it seemed it did, as the princess was continuing her prepared speech.

'None the less, with your abilities, you could provide a great asset to Tristain, and we would greatly like to obtain your willing co-operation – both in assessing your full abilities, and in your help, should we need it. Our reports tell us within your world you are a student. Within Tristain, students live upon a limited stipend. If the same is true within your land, we are more than willing to compensate your time richly.'

Brent snorted. It was a pretty speech, but clearly not thought through.

'None of the things I obtain here – tools, weapons or money, carry over to the real world'

The princess frowned at 'real world', but hesitated before answering, biting back her words.

'Brent', she said finally. 'You might not see this world as real. It has no real consequences for you. If you die, you respawn. If you get injured, you heal. If you obtain goods here, you tell us you cannot use them in your world. But I assure you, this world is very real for us. Around you – in the Academy, is one and a half thousand students and teachers. Each of those has secret worries, dreams for the future, friends and family they care about, and a life they are very much involved in – each of those is a real person. Outside of that is Tristania – with tens of thousands of souls, each just as important, just as real. And outside that is Halkeginia, with hundreds of thousands of lives.' The irritated nods of the nobles around her – and Louise's scowl suggested the sentiment was wide-spread.

Brent was impressed. The girl was in her element when speaking for herself, rather than parroting someone else. And... she had a point, too. All the same...

'I'm not a hero. That is, I'm not generous enough to give my life for the sake of others. Yes, I can recognize that you are real. But I have my own worries I need to take care of. The 'stipend' provided by the government for my studies is low, and leaves me with very little money. The degree I'm studying leaves very little free time, and most of my energy goes into learning the material they provide. Yes, you are all real, and perhaps I should put the needs of the many in front of my own – but I don't.

Completing this degree is my dream. I've been working towards this for five years now. And I'm struggling with it.' Brent paused, hating to admit weakness. 'Some days, I think it's all been a big mistake. That I'll never be able to get through it. Some days, it seems I have more failures than successes. But I keep going. And as long as I do keep going, I can get through it.'

He paused.

'But – your asking me to give this up. To provide a substantial amount of time to helping you. In wars? In building projects? To study magic? It doesn't really matter. If I divert any amount of time and energy away from my studies, I will likely fail. For good. And maybe I should. Maybe I should do the noble thing, and sacrifice my dreams for the sake of people I have never met. But I'm not that noble. I'm not a hero.'

There was an embarrassed silence as his words finished. He looked around – half defiant, half ashamed.

He expected Louise to look apoplectic with fury. Oddly, she wasn't. There was the dismay, as expected, but - was that a look of sympathy?

Most of the nobles were looking at him with hidden anger, and he heard mutterings about how Louise should have a firmer control over her familiar.

The princess herself – she was looking disheartened. She was clearly searching for something to say, but... And then one of the nobles came up and whispered in her ear, her expression cleared, and she nodded. The noble turned and spoke to Brent.

'If you choose to help us, our payment need not take the form of goods, it can just as easily take the form of services. We are able to communicate, yes?'

Brent nodded.

'Then we can pass on ideas. We are able to make our royal tutors and best scholars available to you in exchange for your services. We can guarantee one to one tutoring for as long as you desire. Would this be acceptable?

Brent considered the idea, looking for problems. 'But your tutors are unlikely to be familiar with the subjects I study'

The noble nodded. 'None the less, you would have the finest minds of the kingdom at your disposal. Even if you only study the same subjects together, studying with others – especially those already well trained, can give you their insights as well as your own. If you are struggling with your studies, I might say you can't refuse this offer.'

He was right. There might be problems with this that Brent couldn't see yet, but – the noble seemed to be right.

Brent nodded cautiously.

'I agree with it – for now. But – my studies come first. If I find my grades slipping further... it's all off.'

The noble nodded, relieved, and stepped back. The princess once more spoke up – going once more into her prepared speech.

'We thank you for your support. We have already seen a number of your wondrous abilities, but in order to see how you might best serve the kingdom, we request a demonstration of all your abilities. And forms.' One of the nobles coughed. '... without destroying anything', she quickly amended.

Brent grinned. 'With pleasure'

AUTHORS NOTES:

For those who are interested, 'Coral Island' was written about 130 years after Robinson Crusoe, and is famous for (among other things), being the origin of the romantic stereotype of the pirate.

Coral Island has apparently been popular since it was first published in 1858, and according to Wikipedia has never been out of print. The reason for its popularity is beyond me, as the book is utter garbage, and had remarkable similarities to poorly written fanfiction. If you ever see it in your library, I wholly recommend you leave it on the shelf. If you ever have to study it in school, then you have my commiserations.

I would have preferred to indent the assignment extracts, or change their font or size, but the formatting options for are rather limited - so underline it is.


	11. Arc II Chapter 5

**ARC II**  
 **CHAPTER FIVE**

 **Disclaimer: Not Mine.**

The Princess, her advisors and Louise stood around the strange object. It looked something like a fish, on it's side – completely smooth. It was a dark red, but had large rectangular patches of slightly transparent black – through which they could dimly see a human figure sitting in front of what looked like a small ships wheel.

'Um... what does it do?'  
The question was the princess's, but Louise quickly repeated it, and heard the voice in her head she was starting to associate with her familiar.

'It goes places really, really fast.'

They looked at it. It did, indeed, look fast.

'Show us'

The machine roared, and Louise recognized the roar from the metal creatures with the cannons yesterday. Could this be their younger sister? It did look feminine somehow...

The rear wheels spun, and the thing shot forward, leaving grass and smoke in the air behind them. It seemed to be having trouble on the grass however – the clumps made the thing start bucking up into the air every time it built up a bit of speed. Quickly, it slowed back down, and rolled back towards them at a more moderate pace.

'Well that was a bust.'

Louise didn't know what sculptures had to do with anything, but it clearly hadn't gone as planned.

'Do you have anything else? Anything actually useful, this time?'

_.sSOSs._

Louise screamed as the metal wagon hit another bump and she bounced into the air. The thing was bouncing along twice the speed of a horse, and even tiny bumps threatened to throw her out the back. This wagon was much closer looking to the original two she had seen yesterday – though it had no upturned metal bucket on it, and the place the crew sat was open to the air. She looked across the compartment at the blond haired female musketeer, who was holding on grimly, but refusing to utter a sound.

The two of them had volunteered to ride in this thing – her with reluctance, the musketeer with – she didn't even know. Stoicism? She hadn't seen the guard show so much as a smile or a frown the entire day.

Just getting into the wagon had been an unnerving experience. Much like when she had first touched her familiar during the summoning, it wasn't entirely there. You could put your hand right through some parts that _looked_ solid, but not through other areas that looked clear.

It was like the wagon was only an illusion, but someone had made a much simpler, invisible wagon on top of it, made of solid blocks. All the finer details like levers and handrails weren't modeled on the invisible wagon, but the largest portions of it were all there – in rectangular blocks. It was definitely an eeiry feeling sitting on something a few cm below the actual deck of the wagon, but they got used to it...

The wagon hit another bump, and Louise flinched as she held herself against the invisible walls... but it seemed they were getting close to where her familiar wanted to go. They were slowing down, finally. As the wagon rolled to a stop, it turned, aiming in the general direction of the woods almost a km to the east.

At her familiar's insistence, they had set up some targets there. An old wagon had been dragged into place, and one of the earth mages had magic'd up an earth palisade, a stone wall about a foot thick, and a small stone hut for demonstration purposes. The royal party was standing perhaps a few hundred meters off, watching both them and the target.

Agnes narrowed her eyes. She was a musketeer, not a cannoneer, but she had seen their cannons in action enough to know they didn't have half this range, and even if they did, they were so inaccurate the shells were as likely to land on the royal party as on the targets. But, Louise had forbidden her familiar to fire if the princess was in danger of being hit, and the effectiveness of her commands had already been demonstrated. So...

BOOM!

If anything, the explosion was even louder than a normal cannon-shot. The sound rolled across the landscape, and took several seconds to die away. Oddly, it didn't leave her deaf the way normal cannon-shot did. Something to do with it being a magical construct?

KRUMP!

A tonne of dirt one meter to the right of the wagon shot into the air, and started raining back down. The wagon itself was blasted into pieces by the peripheral blast. Still – it hadn't been a direct hit. It seemed the cannon on this machine wasn't completely accurate.

She watched as the cannon seemingly automatically adjusted it's aim – towards the hut this time. Louise, across from her, was still clutching her ears, looking nervously at the destroyed wagon, the royal party, and the angle of the cannon. She didn't trust her control over her familiar? Agnes sighed. The girl seemed so flighty. So nervous. Her own childhood hadn't had the luxury of self-doubt. Being a plebeian in a world run bun corrupt nobles was hard enough, but making it your life's goal to get revenge on the nobles that had massacred her village meant anything other than iron self-control would have led to her failure - left her ruined and destitute. It was hard for her to feel any pity at all for the spoiled little rich girl across from her.

BOOM!

Louise was slightly re-assured when Agnes flinched at the second firing of the cannon. Even this seemingly impervious military figure wasn't completely invulnerable. She risked a smile at the musketeer, but received a glare in return – daring her to say anything. Louise sighed, and looked down-range, just in time to see the

KRUMP!

As the cannon landed a direct hit on the stone hut. It was obliterated. Louise looked closer. It really was obliterated. Given how much stone had been used in it's construction, there should have been a lot more rubble strewn about, Instead, nothing lay higher than half a meter lay on the ground. Her familiar spoke, seemingly reading her mind.

'It's just like in-game'.

'What?'

'The shells are acting like they do in-game. They either lightly damage a building with the first shot, or they destroy it outright. You got to remember, this is from a game, not real life. The real life artillery work very differently.'

Louise blinked. 'Real life? I thought these were all imaginary constructs. Your world has these things in real life?'

Brent nodded – not that Louise could see of course. 'Yes. But the vehicles modeled in this game are all based on world war... uh, on a war that happened eighty years ago now. Our modern artillery are much much more advanced. In real life, they can shoot out to forty km. And that's just the mobile artillery units.'

Louise looked downrange at the hut, then answered back doubtfully  
'but... you wouldn't even be able to see what your shooting at if it was forty km away...'

Agnes blinked. These things were real? With a range of forty km? If they could be replicated, it would completely change siege warfare. With the speed the shells came in, they would render the defensive mages that usually lined ramparts obsolete. For that matter, they would render the triangle and square attack mages obsolete too – at least while besieging. She frowned as a thought occurred to her, and turned to Louise. 'Ask him how many of these weapons he's showed us are real in his world.'

_.sSOSs._

Louise stood around, bored. Her familiar had changed into a variety of different shapes, and was discussing – mostly through her, how the real-world variants of his constructed vehicles and weapons worked. Academics from the college had been called in, and were taking sketches of the different parts of his machines, and writing down everything he said – through her. A lot of the technical words she didn't even know, and barely knew how to pronounce. If she wasn't needed for translation, she would have left a long time ago. Louise glanced off to one side, where Mr Colbert stood, frowning and clearly wanting to protest, but unable to find a reason.

Finally, one of the nobles asked something she actually understood.  
'So, does your world only have games based on reality? Or do you have games based on things completely made up too? Just what are the limits on the kind of games you can appear here as?'

_.sSOSs._

Brent looked at his monitor and sighed. He should have expected it really. In front of him sat a planet – his homeworld, in this game. While this game's planet models were ok, the one sitting in his monitor seemed a little more real than usual. The two moons – red and blue, clued him in that this was the planet his – ugh, 'mistress' lived on. Beside the planet, sat it's statistics. Terran biosphere, medium size, rich mineral deposits, zero population.

The zero population was the reason for his sigh. With no population to start from, he couldn't build, couldn't increase the population, couldn't research – couldn't do anything. A game which could potentially allow him to conquer the galaxy, and he couldn't even get started, thanks to how it interfaced with reality. He sighed again, quit out of the game, and selected another.

_.sSOSs._

They stood outside the castle walls, and stared at the gleaming metal buildings. There was four of them now. They had appeared so suddenly...

It had started with another one of those metal wagons. This one wasn't red and fast looking, but neither was it dirty and military looking. Instead, it was all silvery, and it was Huge. It had had wheels as large as a man, and the entire thing was half as high as the academy walls. And then the thing had unpacked itself. Unfolding, with new pieces of machinery coming out of places they really shouldn't have been able to fit – until they had a massive building thing in front of them. Unpacked, the machine _was_ as high as the academy walls. It looked a bit like some of the facilities at the docks. There was a massive crane, and a warehouse with huge sliding doors – but it all looked so impractical. And there wasn't a brick, or even a length of timber anywhere. It was all gleaming metal.

The thing had immediately started whirring and grinding and doing who knows what, and a minute after it started, the huge roller doors on the warehouse had opened, and one of the metallic creatures came out – as different from the rest as they had been from each other.

This one was a dirty yellow, and seemed somehow skeletal. It had a glass box on top – where the pilot sat, and a huge shovel on the front of it.

The yellow thing had moved to a new location, and started doing... not much at all. It moved backwards and forwards, moved its shovel up and down, but didn't really seem to be doing anything. Except even with it's weird movements – some kind of dance, perhaps? Something was happening. A metal framework grew itself out of the ground, slowly rising... before falling away a minute later to reveal another building.

The dirty yellow wagon continued its building-summoning dance, and soon there were a further three buildings in the clearing outside the walls. Not so much a clearing now though... the buildings were huge. They had tried to enter them, but it seemed the buildings weren't functional. They couldn't even get close. Much like the wagons, these things had invisible boxes around them they just couldn't enter. The 'Collision box' things her familiar had mentioned.

One of the buildings – another one with huge warehouse doors, and what looked like chimneys coming out the top, started moving. Fans on the side spun up, smoke chuffed from the chimneys, and various grinding noises could be heard. The warehouse doors rolled down, and one of the metal wagon things rolled out – The upturned bucket thing on the top of it with the cannon sticking out of it revealing it to be one of those 'tank' things. It's entire creation had taken about a minute. And as the tank rolled to a stop, the building started up again – starting production on a second one.

Louise looked around at the nobles. They were nobles, of course, so were used to keeping their composure, but even so, she could still pick out signs that they were utterly shell-shocked. That the things they were seeing were so far beyond how they thought the world operated that they were just letting their bodies carry them through the day automatically, until their brains could catch up and process what they were seeing.

_.sSOSs._

The princess watched as Louise leaned over and looked cautiously into the hole in front of her. Was it even a hole? The edges swirled a thick, magical blue – yet no magic was involved. One of the nobles had told her that. Louise turned and looked up at the main academy tower, where a second hole had burned it's way into one of the walls. Unlike the hole in front of her, this one had it's edges swirling a bright orange Louise waved at the hole, and the princess wondered what the girl was doing. She stifled a sigh, and wished – for the hundredth time, that she wasn't a princess, that she didn't need to be guarded all the time, and that she didn't need to be kept so safe that she couldn't at least get a little closer to the most interesting thing to happen in Tristania since it's inception.

Instead, she just smiled warmly as her childhood friend stood right next to the magical hole, and threw a small pebble through. Though when that same pebble shot through the hole in the academy tower and hit her in the back of the head, the princess couldn't help but giggle a little...

One of her advisors – a minister for finance, turned to the familiar and spoke up.  
'Could you shoot a portal into a wagon, and have the wagon moved to another city?'

Her familiar darted from side to side.

'Why not?'

The familiar just looked at her blankly, and they all sighed. Being restricted to yes-no questions were a pain.

_.sSOSs._

They gazed up at her familiar. It made no sound, and sat in the sky eerily. Every so often, it would slide up and down. Straight up and down, quite swiftly. It was a white rectangle. Perhaps a meter wide, but as tall as a three-story building. The strangest part about it was that it was a rectangle. Not a rectangular prism, but a rectangle – completely flat. If you stood at a certain angle, you couldn't see it at all. It slid up and down a few more times, before disappearing, and Louise wondered absently what kind of stupid game it had been made for.

_.sSOSs._

Louise and the other nobles stared at her familiar. It had appeared as another wagon thing. This one was a brilliant white, and much closer in design to the red thing they had seen earlier – though it didn't seem to have those black wheels, and it had huge fins sticking out it's sides. Much like the red thing, they could see the silhouette of a driver inside, but were unable to enter themselves. There were two massive pots attached to the sides of the wagon, and the bottoms of these glowed blue and gave off a loud whining sound.

'Ok – I'll be taking off now.'

And as they watched, the whining sound increased in pitch and volume until it sounded like a banshee's shriek, and the wagon lurched it's way into the air. The nobles watched impassively, but that was no real surprise. Levitating themselves and other objects was childsplay, Even first-year college students were capable of that much. Louise frowned internally. Most of them could, at least...

The pots on the side of the craft swiveled, and the thing shot forward, and was quickly lost to sight. The nobles muttered, and looked at each other. Levitating things was one thing. Speed while you were flying was another. The amount of control and power that was needed was simply too much.

The creature shot over their heads, and was gone in an instant, before coming back at a greater height, and giving an acrobatics display above their heads – demonstrating how fast it could climb, how hard it could turn, and how high it could go. Louise heard murmurings from the nobles comparing it with dragon knights – in the favor of her familiar. There were disparaging comments though – saying they didn't know if it was armed yet. She felt oddly defensive of her familiar. It was awesome! It was the most awesome thing possible in any of it's forms, and how dare they critisise it.

'Can you hear me?' She said softly, trying to prevent the nobles from hearing.  
'Yes.'  
'Does that thing have weapons? Can you give us a demonstration?'  
'Roger that.'

Louise frowned, irritated.

'No. Not 'Roger'. 'Louise'. They don't even sound the same.'  
She could hear her familiar sigh. 'Fine.'

The craft came down faster than... well, it was so fast that even comparisons to other fast things made it seem too slow. But Louise was getting distracted, because the thing was making noises like someone stepped on a cats tail, and what looked like lines of lightning were streaming out of the thing, tearing lines of destruction through the forest. As the thing shot overhead, something detached from the bottom of it, and while the craft pulled up and away, the thing glided a hundred meters further before detonating in an explosion that shot a fireball three stories high.

The nobles that were complaining before were noticeably silent now, Louise noted smugly.

_.sSOSs._

The demonstration had ended and the royal carriage had long since left, followed a gaggle of the less impressive carriages of the senior members and advisors of court. Louise was making her way back to her dorm room, followed by her familiar. The demonstration had only bee a few hours long, but it had been bewildering – not to mention the stress of preforming in front of the princess, and the advisors of their country. It seemed all the tension from the day had let loose, and all she wanted to do now was sleep. She barely even noticed the strange looks she received from the other students. A puzzled, respectful sort of look.

Finally making it back to her room, she pushed the door open and slipped inside, sighing wearily. Then, noticing the shadowy figure sitting at her desk, sighed again. Her day still wasn't over?

On the door closing, the stranger clapped her hands, and the lights came up. She dropped the hood of her cape back, revealing Princess Henrietta.

Louise smiled wearily at her old friend. 'A private audience with the princess. I'm honored.' And flopped down on her bed. Henrietta giggled softly, before coming over.

'It has been a long... and surprising day, hasn't it. So much is going to change...'

Louise nodded, staring up at the ceiling.

'If those abilities of your familiar are real...' Henrietta caught herself. 'Oh, no disrespect Louise. I'm not saying he was faking. It's just... so hard to believe. I saw it. We all did. It Has to be real. But – for so much to change in one day.'

Louise pushed herself up, curiosity overcoming her weariness. 'What are you talking about?'

'With his abilities... with his assistance, he could take over the world.'

Louise blinked.

'I'm not well versed in military matters. I'll be the first to admit. But even I can see that.' Henrietta paused. 'Of course, it didn't help that I overheard the generals talking about it.'

Louise cracked a smile.

'He could take over the world. And he's your familiar.'

Louise's smile cracked.

'Right now, he's probably the most powerful force on this world. He could protect us from any military force. Even just the information he's given us – he's mentioned new ways of planting crops, and new mining machines that could vastly increase our countries wealth. For centuries, Tristain has had to carefully negotiate it's way around Gallia and Germania, careful not to offend lest we be crushed. If your familiar is as powerful as we think, we won't need to bow to them anymore. No more unfair trading concessions. No more 'royal gifts' draining our treasury. And no more having to marry off our royalty to piggish Germanian princes twice their age that think that just because they're from a more powerful country, they can put their hands all over you like your a common tart.'

Louise cocked her head. That last one had seemed oddly specific. And Henrietta had gone red for some reason.

'Anyway', the princess managed, composing herself, 'Your familiar changes everything. Your familiar is quite possibly the most powerful force in the world right now. And you're in charge of him.'

Henrietta paused, looking Louise squarely in the face.  
'Louise, right now your now the most important person in the world.'  
Louise's eye twitched, and she started laughing unsteadily.

END OF ARC 2

AUTHORS NOTES:

I've been wanting to play with this since about the third chapter, but – gah – sooooo much talking needed to happen first.  
I'll probably write a third arc at some point, but don't expect it any time soon.  
Also, 's auto-deleting of double lines and anything that might otherwise mark a break between two sections is getting pretty damn frustrating. I had to re-insert them into the chapter three times before they'd stick.

See how many of the games you can pick. Some of them are more genre types than specific games though, so I guess it could be a bit hard.


	12. Arc III Chapter One

**ARC III  
CHAPTER ONE: Studying  
Disclaimer: Not Mine.**

The end-of-class chime sounded, and everyone sighed as another long day of classes finally ended.

Louise - like the rest of her classmates, returned her books to her school satchel, and headed for the door. Unlike her classmates, she didn't do so while chatting to her friends. While they all talked gaily about what their plans for the evening were - an expedition into the forest to look for some rare ingredients, study, and - if she heard right, an attempt to sneak a peak into the womans' bathing area, none of those conversations included her.

Though with that last one, she wouldn't have wanted it to anyway.

Where before the conversations would have been _about_ her - as the subject of ridicule and the butt of jokes, now she was just...

Ignored.

Politely, and respectfully, but still ignored.

Louise sighed. This was what she had wanted, right? For them to leave her alone? And it was better. Truly, it was. Without the practical jokes and the constant teasing, she was finding it easier to study. Somehow though, she thought it'd feel better.

While the other students headed for the dorms, Louise headed in a different direction. Still passing students, but from other classes. Other years. Almost as unknown to her as her own classmates though, really.

They weren't even really ignoring her. If there was group work, they would work with her readily enough. If she asked a question, they would answer, politely and nervously, then find a reason to be somewhere else.

Louise finally arrived at the classroom she was heading for, and entered with a sigh. Mr Colbert, it seemed, had already arrived, and looked up from the book he was reading. 'Ah, Miss Valliere. Such a world-weary sigh for one so young. What ails you?'

Louise reddened slightly at being caught out. 'Nothing of importance', she returned evasively. 'Mr Kelbart's maths lessons always leave me tired.'

Mr Colbert nodded. 'He does push his students hard, but he gets good results.'

He paused to gather his thoughts.  
'Since this is your first extra-curricular class, and since your tutor for the day has yet to arrive, we'll go over the details of what we're doing here. You probably know this already, from the letter you received from the princess, but it doesn't hurt to confirm.'

Louise sighed internally, and nodded. Why did teachers always feel the need to monologue when they needed to fill time?

'Given the powers your familiar hold, and the strength it can lend to Tristain, the princess and her advisors have decreed the university shall provide you - and hopefully your familiar, additional training. While your familiar has many powers, it's easy to make mistakes in crisis situations, and the best way to prevent that is through prior preparation. That will mostly come through training and drills.'

Louise sighed and sank into her seat. Just what she needed. An even longer school day... But she had suspected it would be like this.

'It's not all bad...' But Mr Colbert was interrupted as a plump older man bumbled into the class - with what looked to be a giant stick insect attached to his back. He set a collection of books down on a desk, breathing heavily.

'My apologies for keeping you waiting', he wheezed.

Mr Colbert waved away his apology, and finished up his speech while the new teacher recovered his breath.

'Now, as the teacher most familiar with you, I've been assigned your head teacher. I'll be assigning a variety of tutors, such as Mr Angburt here, to help you with their specialties. Mr Angburt's specialty is in possessing familiars, and he's here to teach you to do the same.'

20 MINUTES LATER

Louise concentrated like the teacher had showed her, wondering if it would work...Felt the link inside her, exactly like her teacher said it would be there, stretched her awareness through it, and... Suddenly she was there.

It was different than her teacher said it would be. Her teacher had suggested she lie on her back the first time she tried, in case she got disorientated and fell over, but it wasn't like that at all. She didn't feel like she was in two places at once, it wasn't making her sick, she...

She waited...

No..., she wasn't. She wasn't getting any confusing thoughts that weren't her own, and she knew exactly who she was.

The only thing different was the rectangle she could now see. Hadn't even 'looked at' yet, since she'd been bracing for the disorientation Mr Angburt had led her to expect.

Having come to terms with the new sensations - as her tutor had taught her to do, she only now started paying attention to them... the rectangle seemingly becoming brighter, or larger, or more clear, perhaps.

It was... odd.

It was like a painting. Of a waterfall. With a half-woman, half wolf meditating under the water. But there was a large rectangle of white over the top of it, decorated at the top with a series of unrelated tiny drawings - of nothing Louise could recognize.

On the white rectangle itself, was line after line of the most perfect printed writing she had ever seen... though... looking at it, it did look just as good as the text that appeared whenever her familiar was talking.

And the image wasn't still... Especially the white rectangle. Even as she watched, the text all slid up the rectangle... the page? The whiteboard? ... Slid up, anyway, exposing blank white space below, which quickly filled as an invisible scribe wrote... erased, corrected, and filled in once more.

Louise tried reading some of it, but it made no sense to her. Seemed to be asking if William was Free or not.

Whoever this invisible scribe was... and... well, it almost had to be her familiar, didn't it. Hadn't he said something about a magic viewing screen once? Maybe it wasn't just used for games.

Anyway, it seemed her familiar had finished writing. Judging by how much text kept being cleared and replaced, her familiar was having trouble finding the right words. Louise... was a natural scholar. Magic didn't come to her, but she'd never had trouble finding the right words, the right answers, the right study techniques. She had seen others struggle in the same was as the invisible student in front of her. Get frustrated and give up. And yes, even as she watched, a white arrow darted up to a corner of the whiteboard/page thing, and the rectangle of writing disappeared.

The arrow darted over to some of the smaller pictures on the left, hovering over one, before another white rectangle appeared, this one filled with multiple pictures of folders. The arrow darted over one of them, causing the rectangle to change it's contents once again.

Was the arrow her familiar's golem here? What would it even be like to possess an arrow? How could it even see?

But the arrow had been busy as she sat musing... changing the contents of the rectangle a variety of times, before it finally showed a collection of... it looked like artwork. The arrow hovered over the first, and it enlarged, and Louise saw an astonishingly detailed picture of a girl wearing... Oh!

The picture changed to another, similar picture, with a girl wearing even less, with her hands reaching down between...

Louise flushed, and quickly broke the connection.

'Miss Valliere?' It was Mr Angburt, with some concern.

Fighting down her blush somewhat, she looked up. 'Yes', she muttered. 'It was successful.'

Mr Angburt beamed at her. 'First try? Excellent. So what did you see?'

Louise flushed again, looking down at the wooden desk. 'I... I really couldn't say, Sir.'  
Mr Angburt frowned. 'Well, it's to be expected. We'll try and work on your focus, and we should have you seeing what he can see in no time.'  
Louise frowned, but remained silent. She was quite fine NOT sharing his vision...

A FEW DAYS LATER

Brent sat in front of his computer, home from uni and ready for his first cross-dimensional tutoring lesson. He'd spent most of his Sunday setting it up. His assignment involved dissecting a number of different philosophical papers, and he'd needed to create a contraption for his Tristanian tutor to pre-read the material.

He originally thought it would only take a hour or two - load up a space minecraft clone he occasionally played, copy and paste the text into one of the LCD panels, and insert some code to have the text slowly scroll down. The contraption had ended up taking the whole day to set up though. Even coding it so it scrolled took a lot longer than he expected, and the scholars told him it wasn't enough - they really needed some way of scrolling up and down through the text. This should have been the work of ten minutes or so. Just adjust the 'textMovement' variable when the scholars pressed a button on the button console. Which led to the second, and much more time consuming problem. The button console wouldn't register their button presses. Possibly because you needed to tap the 'F' key while your curser hovered over the button, and the scholars had neither 'F' keys, or a cursor.

Hours of frustration, code, and careful queries to message boards later, and Brent had finally hit upon a working solution. The 'game' seemed to register them as NPC's. He set up sensors on different sides of his contraption, which when triggered, changed the text scroll speed. It was a clunky, inelegant solution, but it worked.

Brent just hoped the support the scholars could offer him would be worth the Sunday he'd wasted setting it up. It had been fun, but if he'd spent that time researching his assignment, he wouldn't need the scholars' help in the first place. Not that he actually would have spent a solid six hours on his assignment like that...

But that had been Sunday, and this was Monday. Since the contraption tended to dematerialise when he logged out, he'd needed to leave his avatar idle in it's stall in the rebuilt familliiars' stable this morning, while he went to Uni for his classes. Hew as back now though...

He leant forward, his fingers sliding to their accustomed place on the keyboard and mouse, and his avatar sprung to life, once more startling the stablehand who had been gawking at it. Brent considered apologizing, but he had a lesson to attend.

His avatar - this time, a man in a bulky spacesuit, clumped his way through the castle grounds, swiftly making his way to the room assigned him. The two Scholars were there, already, waiting for him. One of them he'd met a dozen or so times now, a Mr Cobert, he thought. The other he'd met the first time this morning, when he was setting up the contraption. A Mr Bood or something. And now that Brent thought about it, Mr Bood didn't seem too happy. Maybe he found the readings as tedious as Brent did?

The man quickly disabused him of that notion. It wasn't boredom. It was anger.

Apparently, the material he'd been given was considered heretical.

Apparently, his tutor was not a Tristanian scholar at all, but was merely stationed there. By the Church. To keep an eye on the academic body, and guide it away from lines of thought deemed heretical. Such as the material Brent had given him to study.

These were all things Mr Colbert told him after. All Brent knew at the time was he was behind in the assignment because he'd spent his time setting up the viewer, the scholar was supposed to be helping him work through the readings, and instead was going on about the theological implications of the material. Mr Colbert's information could have been useful BEFORE he told the scholar his opinion of theology, the Church, and religion in general. His tutor had responded with a tirade of his own, before storming out, shouting dire threats, and slamming the door behind him.

Brent had initially winced at Mr Colbert's explanation of his tutor's reaction, but then shrugged.  
'Well it's not like the Church can do anything, even if he does manage to convince them.'

Mr Colbert, still somewhat shaken at Mr Bude's tirade, frowned and shook his head.  
'You're being too short sighted.'

Brent shrugged. 'They can declare me a heretic if they want. Imprisonment? A public flogging? Death by burning? They can't really do anything to me that'll stick. If I die, I respawn. I don't feel pain, and I don't own anything. The way I see it, there's really nothing for me to worry about.'

Mr Colbert narrowed his eyes. 'And what about Louise? 'Not your problem?'

Brent paused, then shrugged, feeling a little uneasy.  
'Well... they wouldn't hold her accountable. Would they?'

Mr Colbert just shook his head.  
'You're her familiar. A master is always responsible for their familiar's actions.'  
Mr Colbert smiled grimly, before continuing.  
'It's worse than that though. Familiars are bound to their masters for life. As you mentioned, you're effectively immortal here, but if Louise dies, you lose your connection to this world.'

Brent waited.

Exasperated, Mr Colbert explained.  
'You don't seem to realize the position you're in. With the power you've demonstrated, you, on your own, are able to overcome armies. Destroy or conquer cities. Overcome even the most powerful of mages. You yourself are invulnerable, but if the Church or one of the neighboring countries decides you represent too much of a threat...'

He paused

'All they have to do is arrange the death of a Miss Valliere, and you disappear. Your power, your potential, your threat... gone. As you said, you are essentially invulnerable, which means any action taken against you HAS to be through Miss Valliere.

Brent felt a bit queasy.  
'But surely they wouldn't kill Louise just to get to me.'

Mr Colbert shrugged. 'The Church wouldn't. Not for heresy. They would certainly charge her for any heretical acts you committed, but given her family's political connections, she'll likely get off fairly lightly. Perhaps a substantial fine or a light flogging. Of more concern is other conclusions the Church may come to.'

Brent waited, an uneasy sensation in his stomach.

'You were summoned here. From another world. You display powers that could destroy kingdoms. These powers give off not even the slightest hint of magic - the gift the Progenitor left us.

You bring ideas deemed heretical, and just spoke openly against the Church. It's not unreasonable for the Church to assume you're an agent of the Deceiver. That Louise made a deal with the Deceiver to gain you as her familiar.'

Brent's first reaction was to laugh. Him? A demon? But he settled for sighing. 'So the Church thinks I'm a demon?'

'Not yet, but given the impression you gave Mr Bude, it's a conclusion they're likely to come to. And yes, consorting with demons DOES carry a death sentence, no matter who your parents are.'

Mr Colbert gave a sigh of his own. A rather long, world weary sigh. 'But - perhaps I'm just borrowing trouble. I tend to predict the worst from those in power. I have been right in the past, but far more often, I'm wrong. Perhaps the Church will see past their paranoia and see the person behind that body you wear. Perhaps the neighboring rulers wouldn't stoop to murdering children. Especially if you're careful never to use your powers to threaten them. It's best not to even worry about this, for now.

He paused again, looking around the empty classroom.

'It wouldn't hurt though, if you worked to fix Mr Bude's impression of you. But enough of that for now. Right now, you have an assignment to write, and are missing your tutor. I may not be as learned as Mr Bude, but I did study the material you provided, and am willing to help. Now - what can you tell me about your assignment requirements?

Brent, distracted, looked around his desk for the assignment sheet. It was a good five minutes before he remembered he had never printed it out, and he needed to access the Uni website to download it. Although Mr Colbert had told him not to worry, there was a uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach. He'd known intellectually that this wasn't some game. But the fact that it was all through his computer made him forget sometimes. That the 'characters' here had agency, and would react against anything he did. That even though he was invulnerable, those around him weren't. That he wasn't able to load to a previous save if he screwed everything up.

Still, as Mr Colbert said, he has an assignment to study for. He gathered his notes, did his best to put thoughts of Louise, of politics and of religion out of his mind, and started laboriously working his way through the readings.

TWO DAYS LATER

Brent and Louise stood in the courtyard, Mr Colbert in front of them, three strangers behind him.  
Brent wasn't even sure he should be here. The assignment, and it's looming deadline sat at the back of his mind, an ever-constant worry.

Still, he'd literally just spent an hour at the library, and got absolutely nowhere with it. He'd stalled with it, and putting in even more time right now would only get him more frustrated. Better to take his mind off it by doing something else for a while. Hence his attendance here...

This particular meeting had been decided some time before, as part of his side of the bargain with Tristain. In order to make use of his abilities, he had to discover how they had been reinterpreted within Halkeginia, and find which games were suited to which tasks. The three strangers Mr Colbert had just started introducing were likely... yes. A general, who bore a striking resemblance to the blond fop he'd dueled a week ago, a diplomat, and a lady in plate armor introduced as the captain of the musketeers.

Brent frowned internally. It seemed a doubling up of resources to him. The diplomat for diplomatic skills, and the general to teach the strategies and composition of contemporary armies, but what would that leave for the musketeer captain?

Internally, he shrugged. He'd find out in time. In the meanwhile, thanks to his internal musings, he'd completely missed their names.

The following hour passed by in a blur. It truly was an excellent distraction from his assignment. He had developed a rapport with general Gramont, and learned as much as he taught. He'd grown up on games like the Total War series, so the intrica of commanding an army was already an interest of his. The logistics that went behind an army on the march was far more interesting than he'd imagined, and his ability to bring an army to the field without needing a following train of luggage wagons almost made up for their lack of mage support.

Though he had heard the Total War franchise were working on a Warhammer game. It wasn't supposed to be due for a few years, but if he was able to bring a greater daemon onto the battlefield, no amount of mages would be able to defeat him.

On second thought, that perhaps wasn't the best idea ever. It was exactly the sort of thing that would bring the Church to launch a crusade against him, so perhaps he'd have to stick to conventional forces.

The diplomat... He still couldn't remember his name. That had proven less useful. Or more frustrating anyway. The diplomat spoke of courtesies, and treaties, and traditions, economic benefits and taxes, and it might as well have been in a foreign language for the good it did him. The only thing he got from it was the idea of using characters from RPGs with high charisma stats to persuade important people here. Something that trivialized his problem with Mr Bood, providing he was able to even speak with the Church Scholar any more.

The captain of the musketeer force had proven a surprise in a number of ways. Incapable of magic, commoner-born, and much lower in the social structure of Tristain than any other tutor he'd been introduced to. She had a no-nonsense approach, and focused much more on the tactical rather than strategic level. She spoke of practical things. How he and his master could be transported to where they were needed, how they could do it without being seen, what their rules of engagement should be, and how to prevent their actions being traced back to Tristain. In short, Brent surmised, she was the medieval equivalent of Special Forces. Still terribly direct, and more at home on the battlefield than covert operations, but at least familiar with the concept.

She was also the only one who breached the idea of how to contact him when he wasn't in-game.  
They had developed a somewhat crude method - where if they needed him, Louse would tell him to 'stop moving'. Every hour or so, he'd log into a game on his phone, and try moving his character. If he couldn't, he'd get home and log in as soon as he could.

There was a lot to be desired from this, but the time they'd set aside for this session was almost up. Both the nobles and Brent himself had things they needed to do. It would all no doubt be improved later on.

Brent caught Louise looking at him out of the corner of his eye, and frowned slightly. Why was she even here? She had mostly been left out of the talks, and had only really been included in the discussion on how to get in touch with him. She'd also been more quiet than usual, now that he thought about it... Less willing to throw in her opinion, and just quietly... keeping an eye on him. Watching him. Brent shrugged. The musketeer (Agnes?) was asking him about stealth capabilities of different games, and there were only a few minutes left until they all had to leave. Louise could wait.

Louise watched her familiar quietly as the nobles boarded their respective carriages to be taken back to the capital. His jerky movements, and the way his eyes refused to focus on anything were still unsettling, but Louise felt she was starting to be able to see past that, just a tiny bit. Her lessons with Mr Angburt had continued, and she felt she at least had a glimpse into who her familiar was, outside these poorly animated puppets he wore. She had seen his constant struggles with his study, read over his shoulder at some of the conversations he had with his friends, and even been able to actually see some of his world through what must have been his world's version of a play.

She blushed slightly as she thought of some of the other things she'd seen. It seemed men were perverts no matter what world they were born in. Women were named the fairer gender for a reason, she thought in equal parts embarrassment and smugness. Such a vulgar topic held no interest for them.

Kirche flashed briefly across her mind, but there were always aberrations...But she was getting sidetracked. In the end, that side of him didn't really matter. What mattered, to her at least, was his role as her familiar.

Her glimpses into his magic window was starting to give her an inkling of who he was. And she could tell - this was still all just a game to him. He had said he knew it was real, that they were real people. But she could tell it wasn't real for him. They were just a distraction, something to take his mind off his struggles with his studies.

She hadn't forgotten her conversations with Mr Colbert. Her fears that her familiar wouldn't return to her were slowly coming back. There was supposed to be a bond between familiar and master, and there quite clearly wasn't between them. His studies weren't going well, and it was only a matter of time till he lost interest in Tristain. Watching him through the link, hearing from Mr Colbert on how his studies were going, she had a growing certainty that one day, he'd just decide to stop coming. Unless she did something.

She licked her lips, stepped up...

'Before you go - I need to talk to you. Privately.'  
Brent turned, taking in his 'mistress', showing no surprise. Not that he was able to, of course.

'Uber...' She started. 'Or... Brent? Mr Colbert mentioned your true name is Brent?'  
The figure in front of her nodded it's head awkwardly, staring glassy eyed into the distance. But Louise was becoming used to it now.

'I've been talking to Mr Colbert. Also...'

'Also, I've been taking lessons. Additional lessons, I mean. In how to bond with my familiar better.'

The figure continued to stare past her, into the distance. She fidgeted.

'My first lessons have been in how to see through the eyes of my familiar. Through you.'

The figure turned to look at her, and she blushed.

'I've seen you study. That's all. Just study. But... your study...'

She hesitated.

'I've also talked to Mr Colbert. He's a good teacher, he is, I know it. But the field he's tutoring you in... he hasn't studied it. I don't think he's the best tutor for you.'

She hesitated. But she was already here. There was no going back now. 'While you were on your computer. One of the times, I saw the material you were reading. Saw you studying it, saw you taking notes.'

The figure continued to stand there, waiting for her to get to the point.

'I can help you. The material made sense to me, and I could see you struggle with it. Mr Colbert isn't the best for this subject, and the other teachers won't help for some reason, but I can help you.'

She looked down, a little. 'I guess you might not believe it, but I'm a good student. I think you...' she trailed off. No, that was wrong. She looked up, more determined.

'You need my help. To study. You suck as a student. You really really stink. But I can help you get better. A familiar's actions reflect their master, and I'll not be shamed by having a dullard for a familiar.'

Behind the monitor, Brent blinked, and started reaching for the Alt-F4 keys. But he paused halfway there. She was right... He did need help...

He paused, thinking.

As irritating as the girl in front of him was, if she was as good a scholar as she said... he'd swallow his pride. Give her a chance at least. He wasn't getting anywhere on his own, and Louise was right. Mr Colbert was struggling to understand the material himself.

Louise waited, as the figure in front of him froze for several seconds.

Finally, his response came back. 'Fine'. The slight distortions to his voice doing nothing to hide the irritated edge to it.

Louise gulped. He wasn't going to make this easy, was he? But it was studying, not magic. She could do this!

 **AUTHORS NOTES:**

Mr Bude is a French scholar from the Renaissance period, but beyond that, any similarities are entirely coincidental. Mr Kelbart and Mr Angburt are complete fabrications.

I don't actually have the wallpaper I briefly described Louise seeing, I made it up.

 **Authors Note (more):**

I suppose I should apologies about the wait, but I think I've been doing that for every chapter I've released in the last three years or so, and it's getting a bit monotomous.

For the longest time I imagined I wouldn't be writing fanfiction any more. I spent five months living in Taiwan, attempting to establish myself as a teacher, and the everyday adventure of living in a foreign country was enough that my stories paled in comparison.

Perhaps not uncoincidently then, I started writing this chapter again one or two months after I returned to Australia. It's gone through a lot of edits, and as long as it is, still had huge chunks cut out of it. Overall, I'm quite happy with how it turned out.

The section with Mr Bude had two pages worth of backstory and arguments cut from it. It did do a good job of explaining Mr Bude (and the Church's) position, but ultimately was rather dry and clunky. If anyone really wants to read through it, let me know and I'll send it to them.

Should you expect more frequent updates now I'm back in Australia?

Honestly, not really. Writing is something like a phase for me. I'm interested in it for four months or so, then get interested in some other project, like Arduino's, programming, learning an instrument, photoshop or so on. You can expect future chapters at some point, but probably not more than one or two a year.

As for my Ranma Beats story, I don't even have an outline for the next chapter there.

On a side note, I wrote this chapter while working in the Tiwi islands. I started about a week after I arrived here, and I'm posting this literally about an hour before I leave.


	13. Arc III Chapter Two

**ARC III  
** **Chapter Two: Self Discipline**

 **Disclaimer: Not Mine**

 **Adult Content Warning: Language.**

Brent sat down with a sigh at Adant's computer just as the respawn counter reached zero. Lectures had finished for the day, and his first tutoring session was due to start with Louise in an hour and a half. Just enough time to have a few games of that new helicopter combat game.

His 'leet skills' were proving to be a bit of an annoyance, when it came to game-playing. The games became way too easy, and the constant cries of 'Hax' were quite irritating, but Brent found that by giving himself handicaps, he could get around it. In this particular game, he restricted himself soley to transport helicopters - dropping off infantry with MANPADS, RPG's and mortars, as well as taking over empty bases whenever his teammates cleared one out. He did have the option of carrying gun and missile pods, but he found clearing the bases out made things too easy.

It WAS somewhat frustrating when he had to wait for his inept teammates to clear a base and they kept getting themselves killed... but less frustrating than constantly being called a hacker by sore losers. Trying to fight off enemy players with his under-powered guns made it more fun too.

Twenty minutes into it, and he was just about to land in one of the final bases, letting off the last lot of troops, when his controls locked up. Rather than dropping the last few meters, his helicopter slowly drifted sideways, heading slowly towards the powerlines on the other side of the clearing. Brent tapped his controls a few more times, then sighed and sat back, watching in irritation as his helicopter slowly and inevitably drifted to it's doom - the helicopter exploding into a fireball before falling back to the ground, a blackened hulk.

He sighed again, and moved to his room. Though the door was open and he could see the monitor was already on. Strange... he thought it was off...

As he entered the room, a notepad appeared on his desktop, and text started scrolling across it.

'YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE STUDYING!'

Brent frowned. What? How did she even?

He sat at the chair and typed - more curious than anything else.

'Remote access? how are you even doing that?'

'Never mind that, STUDY!'

He frowned. His 'mistress' had a certain way with words. Annoyance had definitely made an appearance and his curiosity was quickly losing ground.

'We don't start for another 80 minutes. and...'

But the girl on the other side locked out his keyboard.

'Yes. 80 minutes to prepare. You WILL study for this, and you WILL stop playing those stupid games until you've finished this assignment. You NEED me to help you pass this. I thought you just needed help studying, but no, it seems you're a CHILD who needs to be FORCED to do things that are good for you.'

Brent winced, and muttered 'All caps - so childish.'

'WHAT?'

She could hear him?

'It's like you're yelling.'

'I AM yelling. YOUR AN IDIOT. I've been saddled with an IDIOT as a familiar. I'LL drag you away from those games KICKING AND SCREAMING if I have to.'

And annoyance won the day. Under the sustained assault of his 'mistress's barrage, his annoyance crushed his desire to figure out just how the hell she was doing this. All that mattered was he had a fourteen year old giving him 'mum' advice.  
Still... a fourteen year old with the power to veto his gaming...

'There's enough time to game and work on my assignments. Besides, I need games. They help me relax.'

There was a pause before the reply.

'ARE YOU SERIOUS? You're on the verge of failing your assignment because you game too much. You can relax once you submit it. You're an idiot. A complete and utter idiot. If you truly have no self control, I have to control you. I said I'd help you with this, and I'll do it with or without your permission. I'm your master, and I'll help you. Like it or not.'

'Fuck. You.'

And Brent was up. up, and away from his computer. Back to Adant's. Which wouldn't let him game, of course. He switched to his phone...

But those games wouldn't work either...

He thought of going for a walk...

Of hanging with his friends...

But they were all online.

of...

...

Fine. He'd go for a walk.

The sun was out, for once. The grass wasn't too wet from the recent rains, and it seemed the cold of winter was finally over. Everywhere was green, birds chirped, and families played in the distant park, making most of the weather.

Brent kicked a soda can in disgust, fighting the urge to pull out his phone.  
'I can do this. I don't need to game. I won't let her control me like this.'

A passing couple looked at him, the girl with amusement, the guy with sympathy. Brent continued muttering to himself - under his breath this time.

He arrived. Looked around. Sat down under a tree. It was a little too warm...  
When was the last time he had even came here?

He looked around.

Birds chirping. One group of kids playing on the playground. Another climbing in the far corner.  
One couple going over a book of some kind, and another pushing a stroller around.

What did you even do in parks by yourself?

He saw a group of teenagers at a table, eating snacks, half checking their phones and half talking to each other.  
He checked his own phone absently. . Nope... still not working. She'd even managed to block his chat programs somehow.

In the distance, a bout of yelling broke out as one of the kids in the tree managed to free a soccer ball.

A car drove by.

Brent tapped his feet. Maybe he should have bought a book? One of his study books?  
He checked his phone again.

This was stupid.

He checked his watch. He'd only arrived five minutes minutes ago. Still forty five minutes till his lesson.  
But he'd be damned if he gave in. Let some fourteen year old...

Let some fourteen year old stop him playing games, and help him with his grades.

Yeah. He'd be damned if he let her help him like that.

Brent sighed.

But... she was so irritating. So obnoxiously smug about it.

Brent sighed again.

He absently checked his phone again... which still wasn't working. Looked at the kids. Checked his watch...  
Sat... enjoyed the fresh air, the sounds of...  
Oh cripes this was boring.

Fine.

He got up, and headed back home.

His computer greeted him as he re-entered the house.

'Glad to see you're ready to act like an adult.'

'Screw you.'

AUTHORS NOTES:

Ok, so I did have a whole list of topics I wanted to cover to advance the plot...

But... they're boring. Boring to write, and probably boring to read.

So enjoy this return to crack-fic status.

I'm not sure if this chapter should be considered canon (for the fanfic.) It's fun, but Louise was never supposed to gain control over his electronic devices to that extent, or that quickly. I may end up going back at some point and editing it all. But for now, I just needed to write something.

Also, the story is set around 2013, while the game Brent played was only released this year (2018). I have tried to make the story internally consistent, but this chapter kind of breaks that.

Also, points if you know what game it is.


	14. Arc III Chapter Three

**AUTHORS NOTES:**

At some point I'll definitely edit these, as they're very short. Probably compile them into a smaller chapter.

 **Disclaimer: Not Mine**

 **ARC III**

 **CHAPTER THREE: Symbiotic or Parasitic?  
**

 **Disclaimer: Not Mine.**

(SET IMMEDIATELY PRIOR TO THE PREVIOUS CHAPTER)

Her lessons with Mr Angburt had progressed far faster than either of them had expected. She had gone from being able to see the device's display, to seeing out of the device's eye, and listening through it's ear. It hadn't taken much to go from there to actually controlling the device.

This had come to some surprise to her instructor, who had told her this often took a few years to master. He'd theorized it was much easier here because there was no mind in the device sending conflicting commands.

She still couldn't make much sense of the display, but she found she could sort of interface with the 'mind' of the thing. Rather than interpreting what was on the display into some meaningful information, she was able to get it directly from the machine. She would project a desire for images, and be given a pile of... oh really? Over ten thousand drawings? In separate 'piles'. One that she somehow knew was called 'art', another called 'wallpapers', whatever that was, and one called... She blushed. Well after what she saw the other day, she really should have expected that.

She hadn't needed to ask him if he had a girlfriend. With the contents of his computer, the answer was kind of obvious.

She was kind of curious about those pictures, but... no... She really shouldn't.

To distract herself, she reached out through the device, as she'd previously learned, and brushed up against his other device. The one he usually kept in his pocket.

It had taken a little longer to learn to do that, and she didn't think her familiar even knew she could. She wasn't sure she wanted to tell him...

There seemed to be some sort of control interface, but she just bypassed all that. Just sort of pushed with her thoughts at the machine. Pushed a desire to... for instance, listen through the ears of the portable device, and she could hear him... humming something, apparently. Badly.

She'd used her abilities on and off over the last few days to eavesdrop on him. Get some idea of who he was. And honestly, she was somewhat disappointed.

When her familiar had first appeared, she had been terrified.

When she had found out about his powers, she had been elated.

When the consequences of those powers started becoming apparent, she had been in awe.

Being able to spy on him through his devices...

He wasn't a god. He wasn't the Messiah. He wasn't a monster, and he wasn't a knight. He was just a student. A mediocre one at that...

Well, her fellow students didn't need to know that. What really mattered was what he could be in their world, not what he was in his.

Though his world was important too. Keeping him interested... keeping him able to keep visiting... His well-being was important.

A thought hit her, and she hung her head, suddenly ashamed.

His well-being was important to her because it'd keep him visiting? Because of the prestige it'd give her?

But he was her familiar. His well-being was her responsibility.

'Familiars and their Mages: The First Year' had stressed that. Just as mages have a responsibility to take care of their plebeians' needs, they also have the same responsibility towards the needs of their familiar. To neglect those needs - to take the service of plebeians, or of a familiar, and not return the care due to them. It was the mark of a thief. Aristocrats were supposed to have the education and the moral standing to take responsibility for their charges. It was the whole justification for their authority in the first place.

Her familiar shouldn't have even needed to ask for her help... It was part of her responsibilities as his Mistress. But all she'd been thinking about was how he could help her. Well - no more. He was her responsibility, and she'd be here for him. Help him through this trial of his.

Her familiar wasn't exactly a bad student. His study techniques were adequate, and he at least went to classes. The problem seemed to be his motivation. He put in the bare minimum of time. He went to classes, and spent a few hours a week working towards his assignments, but every other minute was spent gaming, watching moving pictures, listening to music... He'd allow any distraction at all to pull him away from his studies. It was as though he thought that if he just went to classes and spent a few hours a week on his assignments, that would somehow be enough.

The surprise wasn't really that he was doing this badly, it was that he had gotten as far as he had without getting kicked out.

It was lucky for him, really, that she'd summoned him. He clearly didn't have the self discipline to do this himself. But with her here now... Well, she'd be here to keep him in line.

Whether he liked it or not.


End file.
